If he isn’t finding the open receiver on the football field or dominating opponents on the wrestling mat, you’ll find Bryce Wickline behind the plate calling pitches and trying to help his Westfall teammates find success.
For his leadership behind the plate and ability to make things happen on the basepaths, Wickline has been named the 2024 winner of the Don Rowland Award as Pickaway County’s outstanding senior baseball player.
Wickline said he had several good role models for improving his baseball skills.
“My freshman year, Luke Blackburn and Peyton Weiss were begging me to come play. That was crazy because I was 13 years old in eighth grade and playing 13U travel ball, jumping right in to catching Luke Blackburn was just insane. I learned a lot from him,” Wickline said. “Hunter Wright was the junior catcher my freshman year, and a senior my sophomore year, and he taught me a lot about being a leader.
“It takes a good leader and a good mindset, strong mental mindset to be a catcher. You don’t want to let a ball go past you, especially here at Westfall, the backstop is really back there. It’s not an easy position, but I love being involved all the time.”
For Brian Wolfe, who stepped in as head coach for the Mustangs this season, having a senior like Wickline made his job a little easier.
“It was great having Bryce back there,” Wolfe said. “We could just turn the game over to Bryce. He controlled the pitches; he took care of the pitchers and kept them going as we needed.”
Defensively, Wickline had only three errors for the season while, offensively, he hit .333 with an on-base percentage over .400 and swiped 24 bases.
After a good start to the season, the Mustangs went through a bit of a slump before finishing strong.
“We started off hot. We came out, even in scrimmages, dominating and playing really good baseball,” Wickline said. “We went through a little slump and couldn’t really get the hits going.”
“Bryce is not a real rah-rah kind of guy, he does it by example and he was a great example for the younger kids,” Wolfe said of Wickline’s leadership. “During the midseason, where we were slumping a little bit, he kept us together and a lot of those seniors did, but Bryce really gelled us together and kept us on the right path.”
That slump meant the Mustangs had to take a two-hour bus ride to South Point to begin tournament play.
“We down to South Point as the 18 seed and played them and they were the 7 seed and ended up beating them pretty big,” Wickline said of Westfall’s 5-1 win in which he had two hits, scored, drove in a run and stole two bases. “They ended our season last season, so it was a good win.”
(The Mustangs ended their season with a loss to Minford, which made it to the Division III Final Four.)
“All in all, we had a great group of guys and a big senior class,” Wickline said. “I grew up playing with those guys so it was really fun getting my last go-round with those boys.”
After back-to-back trips to the state wrestling tournament and spending his spring afternoons during high school on the baseball diamond, Wickline will now be focused solely on football as he is heading down to Marietta College this summer to be part of the Pioneers’ football team.
“I like to stay busy. Since I was young, I just loved being in athletics and doing whatever I can to stay in shape. In the morning I’m working out to keep myself active all that time,” he said. “Especially now, going into football, I’ve got to start running and conditioning. It started in March, which was different, conditioning every single day of the week to play college football.”
Wickline’s prospects on the football field took a turn when Logan Stepp was hired as coach before Wickline’s junior season, and he became the team’s quarterback.
“He built me up as a quarterback, as a leader, as a person and sparked my interest. He said I needed to start recruiting, colleges are going to want you and they’re already asking about you,” Wickline said. “Once I started talking to coaches, I thought I could really do it.
“Especially after senior season we turned the program around, I think, going 6-4 in the regular season and making the playoffs. I really fell in love with the sport and by the end of my senior season I didn’t want it to end and decided I’ve got to go play college football.”
Wickline’s efforts on the football field led to him winning the Bill McGaffney Award last fall.
Not surprisingly, Wickline also excelled in the classroom at Westfall and will be studying petroleum engineering at Marietta.
• The Don Rowland Award was established by an independent committee in 2000 to recognize Pickaway County’s most outstanding senior baseball player and was presented annually until 2013. The Sporting Pumpkin was able to resurrect the award last season to continue to recognize deserving local athletes.
Don Rowland Award winners include:
2000 — Chris Robinson (Circleville), 2001 — Steve Overholser (Teays Valley), 2002 — Trey Fausnaugh (Westfall), 2003 — Daniel Utts (Circleville), 2004 — Mike Scherer (Circleville), 2005 — Lee Fausnaugh (Westfall), 2006 — Joe Morris (Westfall), 2007 — Greg Mullens (Teays Valley), 2008 — Andrew Cox (Teays Valley), 2009 — Jake Vinkovich (Circleville), 2010 — Eddie Strawser (Circleville), 2011 — Zach Wolfe (Westfall), 2012 — Anthony Vagnier (Logan Elm), 2013 — Alek Stonerock (Westfall), 2014-22 — No winner selected, 2023 — Matt Farmer (Teays Valley), 2024 — Bryce Wickline (Westfall).
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