View from the cheap seats

A weekly perspective on sports

I’ve been receiving services at Sport & Spine Physical Therapy in downtown Stratford the past few months. I often see Stratford senior student athlete Chandler Schmidt there job shadowing physical therapists’ Luke Wirkus and Lacey Zimmerman.

It’s neat Chandler is able to make a decision by watching Wirkus and Zimmerman work on their patients what college major he wants to pursue at Winona St., where he will also play baseball, in Minnesota.

I and other members of the media, including NewsChannel 7 television and the two sports livestreamers from Marshfield, interviewed Chandler last Wednesday afternoon after he’d just signed his college letter of intent to play baseball for the Division 2 Warriors next year. The other media outlets were only focusing on Chandler’s athletic abilities.

After the other media were finished interviewing Chandler, I asked him about what college major he plans to study. After all, he isn’t attending Winona St. just to play college baseball.

“What’s cool about the work experience I’m gaining at Sport & Spine is I am earning credits for learning about what the job is like,” Chandler said. “I’ve always wanted to have a job career where I’m helping people, so either I’d be helping kids as a physical education teacher or helping people who are injured, so it’s kind of a win win for me.”

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Chandler Schmidt’s good friend and former classmate, Mazie Nagel of Stratford, recently concluded her freshman college volleyball season playing for my alma mater UW-Stevens Point.

Mazie is listed as an outside hitter on the Pointers’ volleyball team roster, but I recall her younger sister, Lauryn Nagel, telling me Mazie was even open to playing in the back row just so she could see playing time and help her team win matches.

The Pointers fell just short, 3-2, in its NCAA regional final match against the College of Saint Benedict last weekend in St. Paul, Minn. UW-Stevens Point concludes this season with a 28-9 match record.

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Good luck to deer hunters venturing into the woods for the opening weekend of the gun season. I have the typical scar on my nose from my gun kicking back at me while sighting in my gun. A few years ago, I told my family members to quit using propane heaters in their deer hunting stands because they are so dangerous. I was happy on Sunday to help my father install solar panels on his deer hunting stand, which will charge a battery to operate a portable heater inside the stand. Hunters please e-mail me pictures of you with the bucks or does you shoot to rr@tpprinting. com to be printed in the paper.

Casey Krautkramer Reporter The Record-Review