While attending St. Paul Catholic in 2022, Chase Mendela suffered a non-baseball injury to his tailbone that would end up resulting in a pair of surgeries, keeping him out of school for over a year. That left the infielder with some doubt that he would fulfill his dream of playing college baseball.
After missing so much time away from school while working on his academics from home, Mendela felt he needed to repeat his junior year in order to regain exposure and interest from college programs. He made the decision to enroll at Cheshire Academy.
"I knew coming to Cheshire that everyone had the same goal in mind, which is playing baseball at the college level,'' said Mendela, whose primary position is shortstop. "We all hold each other accountable to achieve our goals. I wanted to have an atmosphere that challenged me on and off the field. I wanted to challenge myself academically and experience living away from home to build life skills before going off to college.''
Mendela has discovered that Cheshire's class scheduling is more comparable to college agendas. Additionally, he is given more access time to train and lift weights, and the strong academic standards and culture embedded at Cheshire are more suitable for what he will encounter in college.
