Baseball, Basketball
Favorite athlete: Mike Trout
Favorite team: Philadelphia Eagles
Favorite memory competing in sports: Shooting the game winner against Lower Moreland junior year in basketball.
Most embarrassing/funniest thing that has happened while competing in sports: Chick-Fil-A for the team from the coaches for holding opponents under 40 points after a win.
Music on iPod: Country & Rap
Future plans: To major in finance at a university, possibly either Pitt or Penn State. Also still considering other universities for baseball.
Words to live by: “Play every game like it is your last, (you) never know when it could be.”
One goal before turning 30: Having a career that is enjoyable every day.
One thing people don’t know about me: I have a fear of bridges.
By Gordon Glantz
Play every game as if it is your last.
It has been the battle cry for athletes dating back to the ancient Greeks, if not before.
William Tennent senior Michael Scheller has learned, first-hand, that this saying has real-world implications.
A two-sport athlete in basketball and baseball, he saw his high school baseball season – and most of his summer season – wiped out last year because of COVID-19.
This year, he actually tested positive for the virus himself, temporarily imperiling the Panthers’ whole season, which is now eventually underway with him back in his role as a defensive specialist and rebounding machine.
Add in the fact that Scheller is torn between attending a university like Pitt or Penn State or taking his talents as a pitcher/infielder to the Division II or III level, and there is another layer of fog surrounding the unknown.
“There is always doubt,” said Scheller, who has been spending his senior year in the alternate universe of going to school mostly virtual, with some hybrid, while practicing each day with the team. “We had to shut it down with basketball because of me. I had COVD back in November. We weren’t sure if we were going to come back or how it was going to work.
“Everything was shut down for two weeks, then we went on winter break, so we didn’t really get in too many workouts or practices in before then.”
For a while, it seemed like losing to CB East on a buzzer beater in the District One playoffs last season was going to be the final memory.
“It’s been pretty rough,” he said. “This year, that’s the mentality. You don’t know if and when you are going to play again, so I’m just going to throw it all out there today like it’s a playoff game. You really don’t know when you are going to play again. We are really ready to roll this year.”
Full Steam Ahead
The basketball season is now underway, and Scheller and company are making the most of every moment, with some games played in empty gyms and others in front of select crowds.
“So far, so good,” said the 6-5, 180-pound junior, who has a clearly defined role on the squad as a two-year starter.
“I've known Michael since he was in middle school,” said Tennent basketball coach Robert Mulville. “He has always been a person of character as far as how he treats others and his play on the court. His play on the court is settles the team down. He is calm with the ball, he knows where people are supposed to be on the court and he waits for the play to develop. He is the ultimate team player in practice and in games.”
If you are the top weapon on the opposing team, expect to deal with Scheller’s lanky frame.
“I’m more of a defender,” said Scheller, who hit a buzzer-beater against Lower Moreland in his first career start last year. “I’ll usually guard one of the top performers on the other team, whoever is the most athletic and scores the most. I’m not going to have big outbreaks of points. I mainly just defend. Even though I start, that’s my role.
“I’m able to use my long arms and my long frame to get blocks and steals. I’ll get rebounds and push the ball up the floor. I’m more of a wing, more of a forward, but I’ll sometimes be up top when I’m assigned to guard a guard on the other team. I’ll be up in his face, trying to get a steal or a deflection.”
While he also takes pleasure in crashing the boards, Scheller believes his team bonds over the goal of trying to hold opponents under 40 points.
Being the defensive specialist, he knows he is the key.
“It’s mainly what I can do, that’s most beneficial, for the team,” said Scheller. “I’m able to get three or four steals a game and get a bunch of deflections. Holding a team under 40 points is really something that we take pride in.”
The Main Game
Scheller says he was kind of coaxed into basketball in middle school, mostly because of his height, but he was always a baseball player first and foremost.
“That’s my main sport,” said Scheller, who is a pitcher and corner infielder (with some experience at shortstop). “I have been playing it my whole life, basically. I have been on the varsity team since I was a freshman. I started pitching since, like, my third game there.”
Because of COVID, Tennent had no baseball season last year, and will begin this year with yet another coaching staff.
“It seems like we have been (playing for a new coach), every season, but I’m still really excited about it,” he said. “I’m excited to start the season.
“Last year, I was really excited about our season, and then we had COVID. We were going to play a scrimmage on March 12, and the other team never showed up. That was pretty much it.”
Scheller plays for the Philly Bandits, an AAU team that allows for exposure in national tournaments, but that was pretty much shut down early after just a few local tournaments.
That, along with the fact that colleges are allowing an extra year of eligibility, has made it difficult to fulfill his longtime dream of playing college baseball.
“I have Division II or Division III offers,” said Scheller. “I’ve been accepted to a lot of schools, but I’m not sure what I’m going to do yet – if I’m going to play baseball – or just go to school to just go to school.”
Scheller has receiver a lot of support from his AAU coach David Amaro – yes, the brother of Ruben Amaro – to land a spot on a college roster.
Amaro is not only hopeful that it will all work out, but is glad to help.
“It is my pleasure,” said Amaro. “Michael is a coach’s dream, and he is a hard worker, very talented and a quiet leader that leads by example.
“He is a talented baseball player and he would already be committed to a great college/ baseball program if it weren’t for the NCAA D1 ‘dead recruiting period’ which prohibits college coaches from recruiting until April 15 of this year. That caused a lot of players to get missed.”
Priorities
As hard as he goes at it with sports, Scheller has always been just as diligent in the classroom.
“I’m pretty serious about my schoolwork, as well as my athletics, but my schoolwork definitely comes first,” said Scheller, who ranks 36th in the class and has a 3.77 GPA. “I take pride in that. I’m really serious about school. That’s where you really need to be. You want to do the best for yourself. That’s what I’m always thinking: ‘If you’re not doing the best for yourself, why are you are doing it?’ When it comes to my teachers and my peers, I want to show them that I’m serious about what I’m doing.”
While coming up through Warminster Little League and travel baseball, baseball – and then basketball – came easy.
School was never an issue, either.
Added Mulville, who gets a double dose of Scheller: “Michael displays these same characteristics in the classroom as I have him in my AP Government class. He is helpful with class discussions in class and interacting with classmates as well as being a very conscientious student.”
As if that weren’t enough, he has taken on plenty of leadership challenges at Tennent -- National Honor Society, Business National Honor Society, Athletic Council, Student Government and Black and White leadership.
“There is never a moment where I can be laidback and relaxed,” said Scheller. “The whole day, I’m sort of doing something. It’s a lot, but I like doing it. When I’m not doing something, I feel like I’m not being productive.”
A Bridge Too Close
Despite the deck being somewhat stacked against him, Scheller helps his chances of being a collegiate student-athlete because he is an excellent student.
He has been accepted to the likes of Penn State, Pitt, Delaware and West Chester.
The issue is also finding a place on the baseball team at those schools, or others.
While Scheller e-mails coaches and Amaro works his contacts, his biggest fans – parents Karen and Mike Sr., along with younger brother, Danny (JV basketball and baseball) – hope for the best outcome.
“My dad really wants me to play to play baseball (in college),” he said. “I really want to also if I have the opportunity. They are letting me do what is best for me.
“My parents have always been supportive, coming to all my games and watching me. They have been helping me the whole way, with COVID and with trying to be positive and optimistic about everything. It’s really been a struggle with sports and school.”
That doesn’t mean they aren’t above chiding him about his fear or rollercoasters, heights and certain bridges.
“People, even my parents, make fun of me for it,” he joked. “It just started happening.”
Someone reading dime-store psychology into it would deduce that a fear of bridges means that he is fearful of crossing into the future.
Nothing doing there.
“I’m ready for the future,” he said. “I definitely have a lot of goals and I want to do the best that I can. It’s only the physical bridge. I’m ready for the next step.”
