Codi Heuer

Many high school athletes dream about playing their sport professionally, but it’s rare when it actually happens. Codi Heuer, a 2015 graduate, fulfilled his dream and was drafted by the Chicago White Sox in 2018 after he played for three years at Wichita State University.

When asked how baseball has impacted him, Heuer said, “I have met some amazing people in my career in baseball. I have met some of my best friends that will stick with me for a lifetime, as well as coaches and mentors that will stick with me forever. Baseball has also taught me countless life lessons.  This game is very humbling and if you play it long enough, it will teach you a lot about yourself.”

Heuer had a lot of ups and downs in his college career but he says he would not change his experience for anything. Codi says he “was never really a very high profile guy up until my junior year of college” so Heuer has to put in a lot of work to get to where he is today and is grateful for that. Heuer learned a lot about myself as a player and a person in college and now that he plays professionally he continues to work just as hard if not harder every day to improve his craft and to someday reach to the Major Leagues.

Heuer first started playing baseball around age 5 or 6, whenever he was old enough to get into T-Ball. Now, Heuer is a starting pitcher. “This is my preferred position because it is a huge role on the team and there is a lot of responsibility that comes with the position,” says Heuer. Being a starting pitcher, most of the game is his to either win or lose. With that being said, there is a lot of preparation that goes into playing this position and he really enjoys being one of the guys that the team relies on to help them win.

Some advice that Heuer gives to high school athletes that want to play in the minor leagues is find something to get better at every day. It doesn’t have to be something big, but hopeful athletes need to have a plan to get better every day. He had a rule in college that the goal is to get 1/10th of 1% better every day. It is a process and there is going to be ups and downs in the process, athletes must have a lot of discipline in everything they do. He had another saying that went, “How you do one thing is how you do everything.” That’s a good saying to live by because being a professional baseball player takes a lot of discipline mentally and physically, so practicing discipline, even if that means something as little as making your bed every morning, is a good start.

The thing Heuer misses most about playing in high school is the innocence of the game itself. “In high school, you are just out there playing with your best friends and not really having much care in the world. Now, that’s not to say that college or pro ball is not as fun as high school because it definitely is, but there is something to go with that kind of little league mentality of baseball when you are young and don’t know any better,” says Heuer.

The transition to minor league baseball was easy for him because he had a pretty strict schedule in college as well. The travel for minor league baseball is much different than college, and it takes a little while to get used to living on a bus and in and out of hotels for months at a time.

Codi Heuer has had some amazing opportunities and shows hopeful athletes that if they work hard enough, they can achieve their dreams.