Darin Dreasky was a three-sport star in high school, but he gravitated toward baseball for reasons that resonate
on a basic level.
“Just going back and memories of playing catch with my dad in the back yard,” Dreasky said. “That’s something
he was involved in growing up; it just rubbed off on me.”
There were, of course, some practical reasons. At 5-foot-8, 145 pounds, he figured he had a better future in a
less physical sport.
“I wasn’t really a big-time hockey player or soccer player, being the size I was,” he said. “I had more success with
baseball. I could see the writing on the wall.”
No athlete in the 52-year history of the Big Nine Conference was voted to more all-conference first teams than
Dreasky, who played his first two years at Carman and his last two at Carman-Ainsworth after the merger of the
district’s two high schools.
Dreasky and Clio’s Christi Clemens (2002-04) were selected to eight first teams. Dreasky was a three-time
selection in soccer and hockey and a two-time pick in baseball after making the second team as a sophomore.
It is primarily because of his baseball accomplishments, which include being a major league draft pick, that
Dreasky is going into the Greater Flint Area Sports Hall of Fame. But he was a rare athlete who could excel in three
totally different sports at a high level, even back in the 1980s when sports specialization wasn’t as prevalent.
While he gave up soccer and hockey to become a college baseball player at Central Michigan University, he
wouldn’t trade those experiences for anything. They all helped mold him to be the athlete and person he became.
“The thing I take away from it is not necessarily one particular game or experience, just the camaraderie of all
those teams,” Dreasky said. “Those are some friendships you make that you still run across. You may not talk to
them for years, but if you run across them at a function, it’s like you’re back to when you were 18 years old again.
Those memories are what I take away from the high school experience.
“I was very fortunate coming through high school at that time, having coach Bill Pettigrew in hockey, Paul
Dresser in soccer, Larry Gall in baseball. It was a very special time with the guys who came through, as well as the
coaches that I had.”
At CMU, Dreasky was a freshman All-American in 1989, an all-region and all-conference selection in 1990, and
a second-team all-conference pick in 1991. He was chosen the Chippewas’ Most Valuable Player in 1992.
Dreasky is still listed on the team’s record book in career games (tied for sixth with 215) and runs (tied for ninth
with 154).
Following his junior year in 1991, he was chosen by the Chicago White Sox in the 39th round of the major
league draft, going 1,034th overall.
