Baseball
Favorite athlete: Hector Bellerin
Favorite team: Philadelphia Phillies
Favorite memory competing in sports: Winning the Division II District Championship in 10th grade.
Most embarrassing/funniest thing that has happened while competing in sports: In middle school, I completely missed a ball coming straight at me, and it hit me square in the chest. I lost it in the glare from a window on the school.
Music on iPod: Snarky Puppy, Maynard Ferguson, Billie Holiday, Weezer, lots of alternative music, lots of musical theatre.
Future plans: Major in Animal Sciences or Biology and Veterinary School
Words to live by: “Live in such a way that if someone spoke badly of you, nobody would believe it.”
One goal before turning 30: Travel as much as possible and be open minded about different cultures.
One thing people don’t know about me: I’m very social and like to talk a lot, but I am very good at understanding my role in a social scene and I prefer a quiet night at home with friends to a loud party.
By Mary Jane Souder
Maxwell Mikels is getting his money’s worth and then some out of his high school experience.
The Springfield Township senior is the co-president of the student council, he’s ranked fourth in his senior class, he plays alto sax for the school’s jazz band and he is a member of the school chorus. This spring, he had a leading role in the musical, Damn Yankees, and for good measure, he earned his Eagle Scout badge last fall.
It would have been perfectly understandable if Mikels had opted to walk away from baseball this spring after playing mainly jayvee the past two years.
That was never a consideration.
“It’s just a love of the game,” Mikels said. “I grew up watching the Phillies and just being a huge Phillies fan, it’s just a love of the sport.
“For me, baseball was my favorite sport because you had to think a lot about the game. When you’re in the field, you’re running through ‘what ifs’ as the game is going on. While the pitcher is getting ready to throw his pitch, you’re deciding – if it goes to my right, I need to go to my base. If it goes to my left, I go to second base. You’re always thinking, you’re always on your toes.”
Mikels will take that same approach to the mound when he is used in relief this season.
“I like pitching because it is a mind game,” he said. “I read Money Ball, and there was an account of players that bat against Jamie Moyer, and he’s known as being a really crafty pitcher.
“What he did – he would try and get inside a player’s head. He would go up to them and say, ‘What do you want? I’ll throw it to you,’ and it completely boggles the hitter.”
Coach Dennis Primavera calls Mikels a student of the game.
“He’s very coachable,” the Spartans’ coach said. “I’m a pitching coach, and he listens to what I say and he tries to do it.
“I work with all my pitchers. Not all of them listen, but he does, he tries to pick everything up. He actually tries to do what I’m telling him to do, and more times than not, he’ll see success. He’s a good, coachable kid. He’s got a great personality, and he’s a great teammate.”
Baseball has been part of Mikels’ life since he began playing t-ball as a youngster, and his passion for the sport was nurtured as he went through the ranks of the Oreland-Wyndmoor Little League.
While watching a middle school show in seventh grade, his interest in theatre was piqued, and another passion was born.
“I was just sitting in the audience and I thought, ‘This is awesome. I need to be doing this next year,’” Mikels said.
By the time he arrived at Springfield in ninth grade, he was hooked.
“I kept doing shows, and I made a really strong bond with our director, Marlene Thornton,” he said. “It’s just been something that I love to do.
“I know continuing on with a lot of the things I do in high school is going to be very challenging in college because there’s going to be a lot of higher talent. Springfield is a very small school, so you have a lot of opportunities. If I could continue one thing over anything else, it would probably be theatre because I think I’m pretty decent at it and I enjoy it a lot too.”
As a freshman, his first role was in The Suessification of Romeo and Juliet, and the following spring’s production of The Music Man was a personal highlight.
“Since our music teacher was retiring, we did a community show, and we had people come in and do it with us,” he said. “I learned about high school and life in general just from doing that show.”
Last year, the fall show was Glimpses of Springfield, which featured short scenes written by students. In addition to performing in the show, Mikels assisted several students writing their scenes. Last spring, he had a role in Once on This Island. Three days after the final show, Mikels traveled to Florida with his baseball team for spring break.
“It was perfect timing, and it was so much fun,” he said. “Get up every morning, eat breakfast and you’re playing baseball all day. It was a dream come true.”
This spring’s production of Damn Yankees was also something close to a dream come true for Mikels, who admits he lobbied Thornton to choose that show.
“I was asking her what kind of shows she was thinking of for this year, and she said, ‘I’m between Beauty and the Beast and Damn Yankees,’ said Mikels. “Once I heard that I was like, ‘You need to do Damn Yankees.’”
There’s no break in the schedule for Mikels, and a week after the curtain went down on Damn Yankees, he was traveling to West Chester University with the jazz band for a competition.
“I’ve been playing alto sax since fourth grade,” he said. “I really started getting into jazz a couple of years ago, but I played in the middle school jazz band since seventh grade.
“My sister used to play in the jazz band, so I sort of took it on – maybe this would be cool, and I met a bunch of friends.”
Music is the perfect outlet for the always-busy Mikels.
“Psychologically, it helps so much,” he said. “If I’m really stressed out with schoolwork or anything else going on, I can always find some music that will calm me down.”
No matter how full Mikels’ schedule may be, academics will always be a priority.
“I’ve always been really driven academically, and my parents have always been really supportive of me,” he said.
As president of student council, Mikels, who last year served as treasurer, finds himself planning a myriad of activities – including everything from homecoming activities in the fall to a blood drive in the spring as well.
“We run the PTLF Dance for special needs students in the Montgomery County area,” he said. “That’s probably one of my favorite events because I get to see how much joy we bring to all these kids.”
For his Eagle Scout project, Mikels made a trail at Fort Washington State Park. After receiving the necessary approvals, he began mapping the trail in August and completed it on Oct. 10.
“The trail is on the other side of Joshua Road - people don’t know it that well, but there’s a really large trail system back there,” said Mikels of a trail that is about a quarter mile and connects two existing trails. “My first camping trip was at Fort Washington State Park, so I knew I wanted to do something there to pay them back for helping me out through my scouting journey.”
Next year, Mikels will begin pursuing his goal of one day becoming a veterinarian, an interest that was sparked when he was in middle school.
“There’s a pretty busy road near my house, and I saw a dog alone dragging a leash around,” he said. “I was with my mom – we were coming home from a roller hockey game.
“We followed the dog down a side street, and I tried to get it, so I could return it to its owner if I’d see anything. I was really hoping to help, but I couldn’t get the dog. I found out on Facebook a couple of days later that it had been hit by a car. It was something I kept replaying in my mind. I could have asked it if it wanted a treat that would have made it come to me, and it would have saved the dog’s life.”
Mikels plans to major in animal science or biology but is uncertain of where that will be, although he has scholarship offers from both Temple and Ohio State.
For now, Mikels is savoring his finals weeks and months at Springfield.
“I love Springfield so much,” he said. “I feel like I’ve been so lucky to go to Springfield, and I’ve been saying this for the past year.
“All my teachers have been so supportive, and they’re all such great teachers. All the faculty in the school are just so amazing at making sure the students feel comfortable and are pursuing what they want to do. I’m really thankful for my school.”
