SENIOR WEEKS: Unionville’s Folmar misses out on his first, and last, chance to play varsity baseball for the Indians
The cancellation of the 2020 scholastic baseball season was a bitter pill to swallow for all of the area baseball players, especially the seniors who were denied their last bit of camaraderie and enjoyment with their teammates.
But for at least one Unionville senior, it was the end of something that never really started.
Outfielder Luke Folmar was a junior varsity player in 2019, and was ready to make his debut with the “big” squad this spring. But when the COVID-19 pandemic forced the PIAA to shut down spring sports, it marked the end of a varsity career that never really began for Folmar, who was hoping to help the Indians return to the District 1 playoffs and get back on top of the Ches-Mont League’s American Division.
“I was hoping for a season when it was just delayed,” Folmar said. “But, after the day they officially cancelled the baseball season it was a pretty sad time. I was looking forward to playing this season and we felt good about our team.
“We had a lot of good players and we were excited about the start of the season,” Folmar said. “All of the seniors, we did not really hang out together at school all the time but once practice or games started we really had a bond and I really enjoyed hanging out with my friends in the dugout. We became really tight during the games. I tried to stay ready by running and I was hitting off the tee a lot in my backyard and just tried to stay as ready as I could be.”
Unionville head coach Mike Magee was excited to see how Folmar was going to help his Unionville Indians in the 2020 season.
“First thing is Luke is just a great kid,” Magee said. “And this being his first year of varsity we were excited to see him help us. In our only scrimmage he got on base with a hit and he scored a run and played well in the outfield. The thing about Luke is, he was our hardest working kid and he had a lot of perserverance. He was going to be a big part of our team. We were excited to see him hit the baseball. Just a great, hard working kid.”
Folmar wants to continue his baseball career and he will be heading to the Stevens Institute of Technology, in Hoboken, N.J., next fall to major in business and play baseball.
“Stevens is just such a great academic school,” Folmar said. “And they are a Division 3 baseball school and I plan on going out for the team. I really want to continue playing baseball. And to not have a senior season in high school after I was really looking forward to it, I want to continue to play the game.”