Waynesville Mail

Hunter Berges

Hunter Berges from Stanford is this week’s Athlete of the Week. Hunter was a class of 2021 senior and played baseball, basketball for all four years, and football his senior year. Growing up, Hunter was always active and involved in sports. His active childhood led him right into a high school career full of sports. In football, Hunter was a first-year player his senior year, but still managed to do more than enough to help the Spartan football team go 4-2 this spring. Hunter started at both wide receiver and corner for his six games of high school football. His athleticism and length were a lot for opponents to handle on the field. Hunter’s specialty was making the spectacular catch for Olympia. 

In baseball, Hunter was pitched and played second base for the Spartans. Unfortunately, with COVID canceling his junior year and a knee injury taking him out for most of his senior year, Hunter only had his freshman and sophomore years on the Spartan’s varsity baseball team. As a freshman, Hunter was one of three freshmen to be brought up onto the varsity team. Hunter played a big role in that team winning a regional championship. His sophomore year, Hunter excelled in the pitching side of things, where he was a part of a “three headed monster” pitching attack with his teammates, Andrew Nichols and Ethan Davis. Hunter had some special performances that year, including pitching a shutout against 3A Washington. 

Hunter’s Olympia basketball career was one worth noting as well. As a three-year varsity starter, Hunter was a consistent and reliable post and wing player for the Spartans on the hardwood. As a junior, Hunter earned second team all-conference honors in the Illini Prairie Conference. One of Hunter’s favorite high school basketball memories was, “scoring 24 points in my final high school game.”

These great high school sporting careers brought Hunter multiple opportunities to continue playing into college. Hunter decided towards the end of the school year that he would be playing basketball for the Red Devils of Eureka College. When the baseball coaches at Eureka heard about Hunter playing basketball there, they also reached out and offered him to play baseball for the Red Devils too. Hunter’s hard work and talent has given him the opportunity to be a two-sport athlete at the collegiate level.