Wisconsin High School Sports | Wisconsin Sports Network | WisSports.net

By DENNIS SEMRAU

Wissports.net

 

Derek Peake grew up as a three-sport athlete and like many of his peers spent last year making plans for life after high school.

 

The Waukesha Catholic Memorial senior signed a National Letter of Intent Feb. 3 to play football at St. Cloud (Minn.) State and study kinesiology.

 

However, five months later Peake had a change of heart and it wasn t about his academic pursuits.

 

So instead of heading off to college last week to play football, Peake opted to relinquish his scholarship and pursue an opportunity to walk-on to the baseball program at UW-Milwaukee.

 

"I was in contact with UW-M before I signed with St. Cloud State in football. But the Milwaukee staff said that they hadn t seen me play enough to give me a spot on their team," Peake said in a recent phone conversation.

 

"They said if I could wait until my senior season, so they could see me play, that might change."

 

It did, so he did.

 

Peake batted .324 (35-of-108) with six doubles, six triples, seven home runs, 30 runs scored and 29 RBI. He drew 18 walks and stole 21 bases in 25 attempts, posting a .438 on-base percentage and a .685 slugging percentage.

 

The highlight of his season, though, was the week he was named the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel Player of the Week on July 7. Peake cracked three home runs and had seven RBI in the Crusaders 16-7 win over St. Thomas More July 3 at the South Milwaukee/Oak Creek Blast.

 

During a five-game span that week, he batted .471 (8-for-17) with 11 RBI and six stolen bases. He also pitched 4 1/3 innings on July 3 to pick up the victory against Mukwonago.

 

"I had a good year. My power numbers were up and I earned first-team all-conference honors my senior year," said Peake, who was a three-year starter, who moved from third base to center field his junior year.

 

But after Peake decided to switch from football to baseball, he still had to obtain a release from St. Cloud State.

 

"They didn t give me too much of a hard time. They just made sure I knew what I was doing since I was giving up a scholarship and walking on at Milwaukee," said Peake, who was also a key reserve guard on the Crusaders basketball team last winter that won the WIAA Division 2 state championship.

 

"I will still have to earn a scholarship, but I really wanted to play baseball instead of football."

 

Peake said as his senior baseball season progressed, he kept in touch with the UW-Milwaukee coaching staff, which continued to show an interest in his baseball ability.

 

That was all Peake needed to allow him go with his heart.

 

"St Cloud recruited me as a defensive back," said Peake, who earned Classic Eight Conference first-team honors in football as a kicker and defensive back his senior year. "But what I really wanted to do was play baseball. I m glad I made the switch even though I had to give up my scholarship."