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As a freshman at Skaneateles High School, Hugh Carroll quickly found himself at the forefront of a sectional championship-winning baseball team. Despite being the youngest on a mostly senior-laden team, Carroll stepped up as the Lakers’ shortstop.

Skaneateles went just 11-8 in the regular season, earning the ninth seed in the 2023 New York State Public High School Athletic Association Section III Class B Tournament. But with Carroll’s steady glove in the middle of the infield, the Lakers won 12-of-13 games en route to the sectional championship.

A few months later, as football season came around, Carroll was in the spotlight again. This time as the Lakers’ starting quarterback.

Carroll has developed into a high-level two-sport athlete with Skaneateles. Across two baseball seasons, Carroll has totaled a .321 batting average, stealing 15 bases and scoring 27 runs. For the Lakers’ football team, an injury derailed his sophomore football season but he quickly found his footing in his junior season, notching 894 passing yards and six touchdowns along with eight rushing scores.

“Playing baseball really helps me with football in some aspects and then vice versa, football helps me play baseball,” Carroll said. “I think everyone should play multiple sports.”

Coming into high school, Carroll’s raw athleticism was apparent to his coaches. He quickly separated himself from other ninth graders as someone ready for varsity athletics.

“I really didn’t get a good look at him until we started hitting in the cages in the winter his freshman year,” Skaneateles baseball coach Thomas Werner said. “When he hit the ball, the ball came off the bat noticeably harder. There was a different sound coming off his bat and that’s when I started thinking he could be a varsity player as a freshman.”

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The struggles of playing varsity that young were apparent. It quickly forced him to adjust his game to a higher level.

However, Carroll and other underclassmen were quickly welcomed into the Lakers’ baseball team through their connection to the veteran players. The connection helped drive Skaneateles’ underdog run to win the 2023 Section III Class B Championship.

The freshman year experience also caused Carroll to evolve. Torin Bennett, a center fielder and running back for Skaneateles who has played with Carroll his whole life, has seen his growth firsthand.

“The last couple of years he’s shot up in size and strength and speed,” Bennett said. “He’s really been hitting the weight room.”

While Carroll had a dream scenario in his first baseball season, he faced obstacles early on in football. After becoming the starting quarterback as a sophomore, Carroll tore a muscle in his calf during Skaneateles’ season-opener. He was ruled out for the season.

“I had really been waiting since I was a little kid to play (quarterback) for the Lakers, like the legends I watched growing up,” Carroll said of his mindset following the injury.

Carroll spent much of his time during that season and the winter doing physical
therapy. While in a poor situation, Carroll remained involved in the team’s day-to-day activities, helping advise the other quarterbacks.

“He did a nice job of staying engaged in practices and helping out with the other quarterbacks as much as he could, even though he was still a younger guy,” Skaneateles football coach Jay Steinhorst said. “He made the best of a bad situation.”

Carroll returned in the second round of the playoffs. The result didn’t go in favor of the Lakers, falling to General Brown 39-14. But the loss further prepared him for his junior season.

In the first two games of his junior year, Carroll excelled. In the Lakers’ first game against Fulton, he passed for 159 yards and two touchdowns. He also made his presence known with his legs, leading the game with 130 rushing yards, including a 79-yard touchdown run en route to victory. In Skaneateles’ second win against Adirondack, he performed just as well. Carroll threw for 251 yards on a 62% completion rate.

Trailing 14-7 in the fourth quarter, he ran for a touchdown to send the game to overtime, where he tallied a game-winning rushing score.

Excelling at two sports creates a crossroads. Though they are in separate seasons, the offseasons of football and baseball overlap at times. Sometimes, sacrifices have to be made. But Carroll chooses to remain in the present.

“Everybody always asks me, ‘What’s your favorite? What’s your favorite?’ And I can’t really give them an answer, I love playing them both so much,” Carroll said. “If I had to pick to play (football or baseball) in college I really don’t know which one I would choose.”

Published on October 7, 2024 at 11:20 pm

Contact Aidan: Aibrennan@syr.edu