Scheierman prepped for NBA future

By the time most of you read this, we will already know where our latest hometown hero Baylor Scheierman will be playing professional basketball. That’s quite the sentence to read, isn’t it?
Baylor Scheierman, NBA player for the (insert team name here). 
It feels like just yesterday, sitting on the baseline of Pinnacle Bank Arena watching Scheierman in what turned out to be his final high school basketball game, as he uplifted his teammates while making seemingly once-in-a-lifetime plays.
They weren’t once-in-a-lifetime, though. The greats make the impossible look routine and that’s Scheierman in a nutshell. I started out by saying that was Scheierman on the basketball floor, but that’s not entirely true. He made the impossible possible in any sport. 
You could tell then, even early in high school that Scheierman was made for such moments. 
The bigger the moment, the more Scheierman wanted the ball. Pressure? Not in his blood type. 
Scheierman had 37 points in his final high school basketball game for the Huskies, a double overtime loss to Omaha Roncalli in 2019. 
Pressure? How about playing the last 9:20 of a basketball game with four fouls, not coming out and more importantly, not fouling out. 
He did that in the Roncalli game, recording 37 points, 17 rebounds and seven assists. 
During his college career, he fouled out of just three games during 162 contests. In all, Scheierman had a record of 117-45 during five years of college ball. 
Heck, he completed 17 of 25 passes for 190 yards and four touchdowns inside the biggest football cathedral in this state to win a championship, doing so in such dominant fashion his services weren’t needed in the fourth quarter. 
Scheierman still holds five NSAA state records, including the Class C1 record for season yards (4,172), the 11-man state record for passing yards in a season (3,924), the C1 record for yards in a game (507), the 11-man record for season passing TDs (59) and C1 record for passing TDs in a game (8).
He has five state playoff records from that 2018 season, too: TD passes (6), passing yards (370 versus Wahoo), total passing yards (1,247), total offense (1,275) and touchdown passes (18).
That’s far from the end of it. 
While lifting mid-major South Dakota State to a March Madness appearance in 2022, Scheierman played the entire 40 minutes while scoring 18 points and 10 rebounds in a nine-point loss to Providence. 
In his last game as a Creighton Bluejay in the Sweet 16, Scheierman dazzled with 25 points and six rebounds while playing the entire 40 minutes in a tough loss to Tennessee. 
One thing is constant. Baylor Scheierman loves big moments. 
There was the Central Conference tournament semifinal during Scheierman’s senior season where the Huskies and Seward were in a dog fight. 
After, you guessed it, 40 minutes of basketball (which would include two overtimes in high school, by the way), Scheierman nearly turned the ball over before burying a triple from the left wing.
He shoots from there a lot.
“Coach (Tom Leininger) designed a play to get me the ball,” Scheierman said at the time. “I had to zig and zag around a few guys and got into a rhythm of my shot and it just went in.”
Take it from his former teammates. What they knew back then tells the story.
“The way Baylor was playing, I knew he was going to put it up and when it came out of his hand I knew it was going down,” Cade Reichardt said after that Seward game. 
I’ve been more confident in a Baylor Scheierman jumper over the years than breathing. 
One thing is for sure and I hope everyone here in Aurora and Hamilton County understands. Baylor Scheierman is proud of where he came from and who helped him get to where he is right now. Much in the same way as all of us have been proud of where he’s gone since graduating from Husky red. 
The kid has earned it. Hopefully, even for just a few moments this week, he can enjoy it, too. 
RICHARD RHODEN can be reached at sports@hamilton.net.