West duo balance baseball and basketball – The Gazette: Eastern Iowa Breaking News and Headlines

IOWA CITY — Their names are associated with hitting jump shots more than hitting pitches.

Iowa City West’s Tanner Lohaus and Connor McCaffery have proved they can do both at a high level.

The two have committed to play NCAA Division I basketball, but still manage to spend their summers playing prep baseball. They will attempt to help West return to the state finals after helping earn a third-place finish in basketball in March. The third-seeded Trojans (32-11) face Des Moines East (23-20) in the Class 4A state quarterfinals Wednesday, beginning at 7:30 p.m.

They might have expected to be shooting hoops at this moment when West started 13-9.

“We really pushed through it,” Lohaus said. “We have a lot of great guys (and) talent. We’re just young. It took us awhile to come together. It’s been a great season.”

Iowa is the only state with varsity baseball played in the summer, which is a busy time for camps, clinics and AAU competition. West Coach Charlie Stumpff said he talks to players to limit scheduling conflicts before the season.

“It pulls them in different directions,” said Stumpff, noting West’s Oliver Martin has a similar situation with football. “We’ve made it work. We made sure guys weren’t going to cheapen the baseball experience.

“We all want multisport athletes, but there has to be some give and take.”

Despite minimal time away, they still mesh with the rest of the baseball team.

“They are great kids,” Stumpff said. “Their teammates like them. They worked hard and hardly missed. “

McCaffery, a Hawkeye recruit and son of Iowa Coach Fran McCaffery, has had to forego a number of basketball events, including tournaments, camps and days in the gym. He said he likes to get his shots in everyday, but keeps juggling that with his baseball responsibilities.

“In the off-season, it’s a lot easier to do,” McCaffery said. “You want to stay fresh for the games. It gets a little difficult in the middle of the season to find that gym time, but you still have to do it.”

Lohaus, a 6-foot-6 junior, is the son of former University of Iowa basketball player Brad Lohaus, who played 11 seasons in the NBA. He has committed to play with his brother, Wyatt, at the University of Northern Iowa. Lohaus was on the final two of three straight state championship basketball teams before the 2015 third-place showing.

He called basketball a “year-round” sport, especially for those specializing in it. Baseball provides a small break, including fall and spring ball in addition to summer play.

“You just really have to balance your time well,” Lohaus said. “When I come in I suffer a little bit at the beginning of the season. It takes me a little time to get going with it.”

With his college decision made, Lohaus said playing summer basketball tournaments with coaches in attendance wasn’t as important. He competed in just one during July.

“Earlier in the spring, I get to go to all the AAU tournaments and stuff because the season hasn’t really started,” Lohaus said. “Through June, we try to schedule high school practices around baseball and vice versa so we have time to go to both.

“You just have to make sacrifices.”

McCaffery roams the outfield for West. He hits .283 with two home runs, seven doubles and 23 RBIs from the cleanup spot. He had an RBI single and scored a run in the substate final win over Cedar Rapids Prairie.

Hitting is a specialized skill and there isn’t a similar activity in other sports. McCaffery has to make sure to get his cuts to catch up with others, who have hit more in the off-season.

“You always have to get your work in,” McCaffery said. “You have to go hit, whether it’s with your baseball friends or by yourself here in the cages. The work is the most important in both sports. You can’t just take days off. You always have to get better, if you want to continue to perform at this high of a level.”

The challenge can be more mental than physical. They put their bodies through the rigors of training for two sports. The time devoted to both range in hours, but some days resemble the shift of a full-time job, going from a basketball workout to baseball practice and a game later in the evening.

“You need rest but you have to push through and be more mentally tough,” McCaffery said. “Being tired is not an excuse to not perform well. You just need to push and stay strong.”

Lohaus and McCaffery have helped the Trojans reload a starting lineup decimated by graduation. Players have stepped in to take West to its ninth state tournament and eighth under Stumpff. The Trojans have earned runner-up finishes in 2009, 2010 and last season.

“They had a good example from the previous years,” said Stumpff, who has praised senior Kevin DeLaney and junior Spencer Wiskus. “Winning begets winning. That gets ingrained and then it’s expected.”

Cedar Rapids Kennedy returns to the state tournament. The second-seeded Cougars play No. 7 Davenport North at 5 p.m. Wednesday. Kennedy, the 2010 state champion, qualified for the fifth time in the last six seasons and will try to reach the semifinals for the first time 2012.

l Comments: (319) 368-8679; kj.pilcher@thegazette.com