During this time of uncertainty about the future of Iowa high school sports, it gives student-athletes a rare chance to work on things they normally wouldn’t get to this time of year. PCM senior Derek Brown has committed to play baseball at Iowa Western Community College, and had been planning on playing soccer this spring. He says he’s been using the downtime to talk to coaches and better train himself for the college game.

“This whole shutdown situation is pretty crazy, but I’m blessed with some people around me. I’ve been talking to my pitching coach that’s here, I’ve been talking to Jeff [Lindsay], I’ve been talking to my pitching coach in Council Bluffs, and I’ve got a great brother and friends that want to play some catch here and there. So I do some long toss and weighted ball routines just to keep my arm in shape, just in case we have a season. But I’m just focusing on my arm strength because I just don’t want to jump into the season and get hurt my senior year or my fall season going into college.”

Brown has been a member of the starting rotation throughout his time at PCM. He plans to pursue NCAA Division I opportunities after Iowa Western, preferably at the University of Iowa.