School: Plymouth Whitemarsh
Baseball
Favorite athlete: Mickey Mantle
Favorite teams: Phillies and Yankees
Favorite memory competing in sports: “Winning back-to-back Little League championships with still teammate Chris ‘Q’ Quarino.”
Most embarrassing/funniest thing that has happened while competing in sports: “When I played basketball in seventh grade, my teammate started going the wrong way with the ball towards our basket. Everyone on my team was yelling at him to stop, but he went for the lay-up anyway, and he actually missed.”
Music on iPod: Lil Wayne, Eminem, Charles Hamilton, The Who, Weezer…anything except country
Future plans: Penn State University Business School, hopefully walk on the baseball team or play for the club team.
Words to live by: “Don’t give up. Don’t ever give up.” Jim Valvano
One goal before turning 30: “Get married and make six figures a year”
One thing people don’t know about me: “I get nervous and scared when driving next to tractor trailers on the highway.”
Mike Graney is a walking advertisement for the importance of seizing the opportunity.
Last year, Plymouth Whitemarsh coach Bob Slagle decided to shuffle his lineup in an early season contest against Upper Moreland, and he penciled Graney – in his first year on the varsity – into the starting lineup.
“Some guys may not have been hitting, so you give some other kids an opportunity,” Slagle said.
Graney led off the seventh inning of that game with a single and then hustled from first to third on a sacrifice bunt, eventually scoring the tying run. Teammate Jack Kavetski won it with a home run the following inning.
“I finally got my shot,” Graney said. “I just wanted to make the most of it, so I could play every day.”
Graney has been a fixture in PW’s starting lineup ever since, and it’s the kind of hustle and determination coach Bob Slagle has come to expect from his senior centerfielder, who went on to hit .333 with an on-base percentage of .483 last year.
“He’s the kind of guy – you ask him to put the bunt down, he puts the bunt down,” the Colonials’ coach said. “He hits behind the runner, he takes the extra base.
“Once he got a chance, he never came out of the lineup again. He was elected captain by the players, and that says it all.”
Graney hits out of the leadoff or second spot in PW’s lineup this season, and he is hitting at a .325 clip. His is a success story, according to his coach, that wasn’t necessarily a foregone conclusion.
“Somebody else may not have predicted seeing him do this as an eighth or ninth grader, but you just kind of knew he was going to do all the right things,” Slagle said. “He’s the kind of guy that you tell people about.
“He’s done everything he should do to make him who he is.”
In PW’s opening game of the season against Central Bucks East, Graney drove in the tying run with two outs in the seventh inning to extend the game into extra innings. He had three hits on the day.
Last week, it was Slagle who had a pair of hits and scored both of his team’s runs in the Colonials’ 2-0 win over then first place Wissahickon.
“We’ve won six in a row to get back in this thing, and he’s a big part of it,” Slagle said. “He’s disciplined personally, and that shows not only in his play but how he does everything in his life.”
Graney, according to his coach, is not only an outstanding baseball player but an outstanding person.
“He definitely leads by example, and he’s a quality individual,” Slagle said. “His actions are absolutely genuine, and he gains the respect of everyone with whom he interacts.”
Graney has been playing baseball since his earliest recollection. He also played some basketball and hockey, but by the time he was in high school, baseball was his sport of choice.
“I like everything about it – being outside, hitting the ball, fielding, just everything,” he said.
He grew up a Yankees fan, but he also loves the Phillies.
“My dad grew up in New York, and I was raised a Yankees fan,” said Graney.
He went through the usual ranks on the baseball diamond, earning a spot on the Little League travel team. Graney played Junior Legion for Whitemarsh and now plays Senior Legion.
His philosophy has always been the same.
“Just work hard, practice every day and make the most of my opportunities when I get them,” he said.
An excellent student who takes AP classes, Graney will enroll in Penn State University’s Business School this fall where he will major in actuarial sciences with aspirations to one day be an actuarial for an insurance company or open his own business.
He plans to continue his baseball career and will either try out as a walk-on or play for the club team.
“I love playing baseball, just the same as I loved it as a little kid,” he said. “I just want to make the most of my opportunities because it’s hard to play when you get older.”
For now, Graney and his teammates are hoping to build on their six-game winning streak, and their team is in contention for the American Conference crown after a shaky start.
Last year, the Colonials finished second to Methacton and advanced to the second round of districts.
“I think we came into the season a little bit too cocky this year - knowing without Methacton and Quakertown, this was our shot,” he said. “We always knew we could be the best team if we played to our potential. We started to do that in the last six games.”
Not surprisingly, Graney has been a catalyst in the Colonials’ late-season run.
