Michael Chack has been a winner as a Lake High School football wide receiver and an outfielder for the baseball team.
Those winning ways will be making the trek to Malone University, where he will play first base under 1988 Malone alumnus and head coach Tom Crank, who wrapped up his sixth year as the Pioneers leader.
Chack will join Lake graduate and Malone pitcher Camden Carter, who was a member of the 2007 Blue Streaks district championship team.
According to Lake coach Bud Householder's, he has been impressed with Crank's ability to recruit talented baseball players to invest into the Pioneers program.
Chack will be counted on right away to contribute to that success with a program at it's peak.
“Michael is the kind of athlete that we want to contribute to Malone. At Malone, there are (three) objectives that I look at in an athlete. One, do they come from a good family. Two, are they a good student. And three, are they a borderline Division I player that can come in and contribute,” Crank said. “Chack can come in and fit the mold of the the program with those attributes. We want our athletes to come in and get an education and that is what we talk about first and foremost. If you don't make it into the major leagues, we want you to have something to fall back on.”
Stark County is a major hotbed for Malone baseball. This past year's edition of the Pioneers baseball team featured 17 players from Stark County. Chack will be entering unchartered waters but that transition will be easier with Carter's presence.
“Both players are in the same mold and are great students. Mike will benefit from Camden's presence and get some pointers from him about being successful in college life,” Crank said.
This season, the Pioneers finished the 2009 campaign with a 47-16 record. The 47 wins were the most ever recorded by any Malone baseball team. They also won the AMC conference title and played in the NCCAA championship game.
The American Mideast Conference is one of the most arduous conferences to navigate through. Crank knows the difficulty of winning the tournament to obtain that automatic bid to the NAIA world series.
Even though their conference record may not indicate the difficulty, the Pioneers blitzed their way to a 26-6 conference record, not too many teams can do that in a conference as competitive as the AMC.
“That conference is very powerful. It was a situation where we won back-to-back conference titles, something that had not been accomplished in this conference. It was great for the university to do that,” Crank said. “This team had great senior leadership and what I told the seniors when they were freshmen is that when you get to Malone, we want to win a national championship and they did that as freshmen. You look at them as seniors now, they laid down the groundwork for future Malone teams.”
Chack will get an immediate opportunity to compete with Ryan Baechel graduating along with six other seniors. The same work ethic that he employed during his time as a Blue Streak will be imperative if he is to crack the starting nine next spring.
First, he will have to take care of his academic priorities and establish himself in order to receive that chance.
“He will have an opportunity to play once he comes in. We will have six weeks of fall baseball and right there will be a great chance for him. It is all up to him,” Crank said.
Michael Chack has been a winner on the Lake High School football and baseball teams and now those winning ways will make their way to Malone University.
