Senior Spotlight: Shayer relished opportunity as Perkiomen Valley backstop

Brendan Shayer’s varsity baseball career at Perkiomen Valley started a little early two seasons ago.

Shayer, then a sophomore, was playing for the JV team against Pottsgrove, when he was told to rush down the varsity field after the Vikings’ starting backstop went down with an injury.

“I was definitely a little bit nervous, but I felt kind of ready because of all my practice I had been doing,” Shayer said. “Although I was nervous, I still felt like I was going to make the most of the opportunity.”

Shayer became a mainstay behind the plate for Perkiomen Valley over the next two seasons, catching the majority of innings for the Vikings since being inserted into the role.

It was his job to lose once again this spring.

After the departure of 11 seniors from last year’s team, Shayer came into this year slated to be one of the Vikings’ leaders before the coronavirus pandemic ended his senior campaign before it started.

“I just want to talk about how grateful I am for the coaches and the opportunities they presented each of us to work hard in the weight room and the offseason and how all of my teammates really grasped that and did work hard,” Shayer said. “They were ready to jump in when the seniors left last year for this season. We just went on not missing a beat. That was really a credit to all of them.”

Shayer said he’s always felt at home playing catcher. It’s been his position of preference for as long as he can remember.

“Ever since my first year ever playing, I just kind of had an attraction to the spot,” Shayer said. “It was always the most action. It kept me the most entertained during the game.”

Shayer became the backstop for this Vikings’ senior group starting when many of them played together for the Central Perk 9U team.

Over the course of their baseball careers, Shayer has built a rapport with several of the pitchers, including senior lefthander Brian Willey who he caught last season during their junior years.

“I’ve always felt the most comfortable with him catching me, and he always said he’s liked to catch me just because he always said he always knew where the ball was going to go,” Willey said. “That’s just the chemistry we’ve had between the two of us, and I just felt most comfortable and the calmness whenever he was catching me.”

Though he started the year batting high in the order, Shayer struggled during a stretch of his junior season in 2019, even sitting a few games to clear his head and give now-junior catcher Jake Stasyk some innings behind the plate.

Shayer’s resolve to bounce back from the tough stretch and earn back his starting role is one of the things Perkiomen Valley baseball coach Ryan Hinkle has been most impressed by during his career.

“When Brendan sat for a couple games as a junior last year because of some performance, or we brought a sophomore up to catch as well, we were like, ‘Look, you’ve gotta work your way back into it,” Hinkle said. “This isn’t the end of the day.’ He still worked hard and grinded in practice. That’s what all coaches really want to see.”

Shayer also spent multiple seasons in the Perkiomen Valley football program. He said he loves the little bit of contact that does come with the playing catcher, so naturally he feels at home on the gridiron as well.

“He’s a workhorse and that’s what the football guys loved about him,” Hinkle said. “He would just grind, grind, grind and just never complained.”

After taking the starting catcher job for the baseball team as a sophomore, Shayer decided to skip football during his junior season to focus on baseball.

He rejoined football the team this fall, playing outside linebacker for the Vikings. It’s a decision that seems to have especially paid off considering the circumstances of his senior baseball season, giving him at least one senior sports season.

“I’m super grateful that I decided to come back because I don’t know how much regret I would have if I didn’t choose to do that because I think it ended up really paying off for me,” Shayer said. “That whole experience was really big for me to grow.”

Shayer is headed to Penn State University next fall, where he will study kinesiology. He said he had to go to physical therapy for an arm injury last season, which prompted the interest in his college major.

“That’s where my thoughts and love for kinesiology and studying how the body moves kind of inspired me to go learn more about it and make a career out of it,” Shayer said.

Hinkle still remembers making the call to the JV field and seeing Shayer run down to join the varsity squad for the first time two years ago.

He’s watched his senior catcher grow from a quiet sophomore with butterflies in his stomach into a vocal leader who set an example of hard work and determination for others to follow in the program.

“He’s always been a quiet guy. The one thing I always try to tell him is as a catcher you’ve gotta be loud,” Hinkle said. “He didn’t really have that voice his sophomore year. Last year as a junior, he started to get that voice. This year as a senior, he was really taking more of a leadership role.”