The Juneau-Douglas High School: Yadaa.at Kalé Crimson Bears baseball team will honor senior outfielder Jacob “Jake” Katasse, senior catcher JJ “Kung Fu Master” McCormick and senior outfielder/infielder Christian “Chris” Nelson on Saturday at Adair Kennedy Memorial Park after their 4 p.m. game against Ketchikan and before their 7 p.m. game with the Kings.
In the senior team programs, all three thanked their parents, coaches, teammates, family members and friends, and advised younger players to push themselves, never give up, and to put their heads down and work to be “your best self on and off the field.”
Katasse has played baseball for 11 years, his favorite food is steak and he said, “Baseball taught me if you take things too seriously, you’ll never have any fun. Baseball is a game of errors, so don’t let mistakes weigh you down. Brush it off and move on.”
He listens to whatever music is on, his favorite books are the Hatchet Adventure Series by Gary Paulsen, which he discovered in sixth grade. His favorite movie is “Prisoners” with Hugh Jackman and Jake Gyllenhaal and his favorite class at JDHS is fourth-period English with Angela Noon, “because it has most of my friends in it.”
Katasse said he will miss seeing his friends every day, and his favorite memory is the Little League All-Star trips.
His hobbies include going to the gym and video games. He likes Juneau because he can drive wherever he wants and not worry about anything. He is unsure where he wants to attend college.
“Jacob’s just an all-around great kid on and off the baseball field,” JDHS head coach Luke Adams said. “He’s got a great heart, great character. Keeps everything light in practice and keeps the energy good. Overall he has really shown a lot of leadership just by his demeanor.”
“I’ve worked with Jacob for a while now in the transition between the two schools. He’s a guy I’ve been able to talk to, kind of get a read on the group, and get some insight on what we needed to do as a program to bring this whole group together and be competitive. He plays a really important role in this program purely because of his work ethic and the fact that he understands that when his time is called he needs to go perform.”
“When it’s not, he’s got a very important role to be supportive of his teammates and he does it with class and style. It’s a great leadership quality. He’s not always the loudest kid in the room and not always a kid that is the hero at the end of the night, but he is an outstanding human being and he’s going to do great things moving forward. Right now he’s going to help us in the next couple of weeks so we make that run for state.”
Adams noted Katasse’s character.
“I think he’s just got a little keen, quiet sense of humor and everybody likes him, and he treats everybody with respect,” Adams said. “So it’s not one thing or another. It’s kind of the same way he plays the game. You know what you’re gonna get from Jacob. He’s gonna give you his best effort all the time, but he doesn’t have a panic mode. He just goes out there and does what he can. That’s what we can expect from him. We put a lot more pressure on him to step up his game late in the season just to kind of give us another level and he’s risen to that occasion. He’s been a JD kid for his career here, a great kid.”
McCormick has played baseball for 12 years, his favorite food is pork adobo and he said, “Baseball taught me to stay disciplined and keep working, even through failure.”
His favorite artist is Drake or rap artists, his favorite book is “Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief” by Rick Riordan. His favorite movie is “Grown Ups” with Adam Sandler, David Spade and Chris Rock, and his favorite class is fourth-period English with Ms. Noon.
McCormick said he will miss “messing around on team trips and hanging with the team,” and his favorite memory is junior year wrestling every night during Sitka pre-season and maybe breaking part of the bed frame in the process.
His hobbies include basketball, skiing, going to the gym and video games. He loves Juneau for the natural views, the mountains and nature. He plans to attend the University of Alaska Anchorage and is interested in kinesiology.
“JJ was at Thunder Mountain for the past three years, and he was an amazing part of their program and one of their leaders,” Adams said. “He made an easy transition to be in that same role at JD. I’ve known JJ for many years. Much like Jacob Katasse, he was a guy I could kind of get a read on the group, and I communicated a lot with JJ in our building the program the way we have so far this season, and a lot of our success is because of he and I, Jacob and a lot of other players.”
“I kind of went to the table and said, ‘What are those things that can come from both programs to make us successful?’ Just his desire to not only take this season as senior year, it’s like, ‘all right, we’re good enough, let us play.’ He wanted to get better and he specifically said we need catching, we need specific things, we need a lot more instruction and we want to get better and if we can do that position specific, that would be helpful.”
“And we took that to heart. We talked to our coaching staff and even though the season’s quick and it’s sometimes tough to find and carve out that time, that stuck with me, and it’s part of his character to keep getting better all the time. We put a lot of pressure on JJ to deliver and put him in a very important role behind the plate. I truly believe he’s one of the better catchers in our region, if not the best catcher, and every weekend he gets to go try to prove that.
“So far we’re really proud of him and what he’s brought to the JD program, but also grateful for what he did for the Thunder Mountain program in those three years. He’s a quiet leader and he leads by example. He really is a kid that has a lot of mental drive to get better. He loves the game and it shows.”
Nelson has played baseball for nine years, his favorite food is french fries, and he said, “Baseball has taught me to never give up.”
His favorite genre of music is hip-hop, his favorite book is “The Giver” by Lois Lowry, his favorite movie is “Like Mike 2: Streetball” with Jascha Washington, and his favorite class at JDHS is rotisserie with James Sheufelt.
Nelson said he will miss making new connections and his favorite memory is the Little League All-Star trips.
His hobbies include basketball and video games. He loves Juneau because his friends and family live here and he knows a lot of people. He plans to work during the summer and is undecided about college.
“Christian has a very unique way to show his competitive drive,” Adams said. “He’s a quiet kid but when he gets into a game, he is all business. He is his own biggest critic, he knows that, but we’ve really been working with him just to keep driving and keep understanding that his best effort is always going to be enough for us. Every time he’s faced a challenge this season, whether we’re on the field or off the field or in practice, he meets expectations.”
“The conversations I’ve had with Christian have been really awesome because we’ve seen a lot of growth not only in baseball but just in the way he is and contributes to our team this year. Arguably, when he gets in I think he’s as good as anybody we’ve ever known. He’s an outstanding competitor and outstanding athlete. And we’re really going to rely on him in this final push.”
“In the conversations I’ve had with him and the coaches, he’s a kid that wants the ball and we like to give it to him. He’s been a great addition to the program this year. The thing that people don’t always see about Christian, though, is that he is a very kind, very sweet kid, and a lot of people probably don’t see that when he’s competing because he’s as tough as nails. He likes working with the younger kids, it’s pretty special to have him in the program at the same time as his younger brother, Michael, who’s a freshman. I know they’re really cherishing this experience and it has been really cool to see not only Christian play, but for them to have that opportunity together.”
“He’s a good kid and we’re excited to see what he can do in the next week or so. His competitive level is going to be missing from this team next year, but I think a lot of kids are going to pick up a lot of how he competes and then carry that on.”
• Contact Klas Stolpe at klas.stolpe@juneauempire.com.
