By Terry Boehmker
NKy Tribune sports reporter
The success Jake Ohmer had in basketball and baseball during his sophomore year at Scott High School did not go unnoticed. He was invited to play on select teams in both sports this summer and that will give college recruiters plenty of opportunities to access his talents.
“Next week, I’m going to Atlanta for a national basketball tournament, but I’m mostly playing baseball this summer,” Ohmer said. “We usually play two (baseball) games every week and then go to a tournament on the weekend.”
The multi-talented teenager is an infielder and relief pitcher for the Midland Tribe 16-under select baseball team this summer. He was asked to join the Tribe after helping Scott make it to the semifinals of the state high school baseball tournment in June. In addition to being one of the Eagles’ leading hitters with a .364 average, he had a 7-1 pitching record and 1.91 ERA during the spring campaign.
“I didn’t even know I was going to be a key pitcher for our team,” Ohmer said. “At the beginning of the season, I wasn’t pitching much at all. It all started in the middle and end of the season and then I started pitching a lot.”
Scott baseball coach Jeff Trame’s decision to use Ohmer on the mound certainly paid off in the playoffs. The sophomore right-hander had two wins and a save during the 38th District and 10th Region tournaments and allowed only two hits in a 7-0 shutout against South Warren in the quarterfinals of the state tournament. He also went 5-for-8 at the plate during the state tournament to earn a spot on the all-tournament team.
“Jake is a phenomenal athlete, a fierce competitor and a real gamer,” Trame said. “The bigger the situation the better he performs. The team plays off of his confidence and performance.”
Ohmer was also a standout performer on the Scott boys’ basketball team last season. Playing both shooting guard and point guard, he averaged 21.5 points per game to finish the regular season as Northern Kentucky’s scoring leader. He was voted one of the top 10 players in Division I by local coaches at the end of the regular season and he continued to shoot the ball well during the playoffs when Scott made it to the 10th Region final.
“Jake has a tremendous knack for scoring,” said Scott basketball coach Brad Carr. “He is a tremendous shooter from the 3-point line, but he is also capable of getting to the basket. With his added strength and athleticism, he is able to take on the contact in the paint. This allows him to score a significant number of points from the free throw line where he shoots a high percentage.”
Ohmer has already surpassed the 1,000-point mark in career scoring as a high school basketball player and he still has two seasons left. His ability to put the ball in the basket is why the Northern Kentucky Legends Elite select team added him to its roster for the United States Basketball Association National Tournament next week in Atlanta.
“I played the first tournament of the summer with (the Legends) before I started playing baseball,” Ohmer said. “Now I’m just playing in nationals with them and then I’ll go back to baseball.”
After summer baseball ends in late August, Ohmer gets to take a break for a few weeks before pre-season basketball practice begins in October. Then he will be playing basketball or baseball for the remainder of his junior year. His goal is to help the Eagles win a 10th Region championship in each sport and compete for state tiles.
“I feel like we have a really good shot in basketball and we should be able to do it again in baseball, too, especially with the coaches we’ve got,” Ohmer said. “Coach Carr will find a way to get us there and the same with coach Trame.”