Solon High School’s (SHS) boys baseball tryouts are scheduled to begin on Feb. 20, 2023 and will most likely go through Friday, Feb. 24. In order to prepare for tryouts, the team has held open field workouts along with lifting since the fall.

SHS head varsity baseball coach Damien Kopkas is beginning year 14 as the head coach for the team. Kopkas said he is fairly excited for the upcoming season but also has to make a couple of tough decisions to make the 2023 roster.

“This year our varsity team figures to be fairly senior-heavy as we have a large group of seniors who plan to try out,” Kopkas said. “However, there are some extremely talented underclassmen who will be challenging for those spots as well, so I am anticipating some major battles for roster spots leading up to opening day on Monday, March 27.”

SHS senior Adam Niederst is participating in his last season this year.

“A senior season is something that hasn’t happened in my family since my sister was injured for her soccer season, and my brother’s season was canceled due to covid, so being able to play this year and finish my senior season means a lot,” Niederst said.

Although Nierderst hopes to enter his last high school season this year, he plans to continue his baseball career at a collegiate level.

“I am interested in playing at John Carroll University or other small Division III schools in Ohio,” Niederst said. “If I end up going to a different school, I would definitely consider playing club baseball.”

Caleb Walker, a senior at SHS, is also hoping to enter his final high school baseball season.

“It’s both exciting and sad because I feel like I was just a freshman yesterday and now it’s my last season,” Walker said. “But, it’s always fun going out and playing the sport that I love.”

This is SHS’s last season in the Greater Cleveland Conference (

GCC). SHS has been a member of the GCC since 2015. For the 2023-2024 season, SHS will become a member of the Suburban League.

“Switching conferences is a bittersweet feeling for me,” Kopkas said. “In our years in the GCC, we have developed some serious rivalries with those schools. I have really enjoyed working against the GCC coaches, and the programs they run are some of the finest in Northeast Ohio. It is very rare when at least one GCC school does not advance to the Regionals.”

According to Kopkas, the baseball team is continuing to work hard up until tryouts at the end of February.

“There is something inherently enjoyable about the sport of baseball – it somewhat signals the beginning of spring, and so I always get excited as the season approaches,” Kopkas said.