The Overlake School senior Danny Poplawski has come a long way since his freshman year, when he was a scrappy 5-foot-10 kid with raw talent.
Since then, the accomplished student-athlete has worked year-round to get his physical ability on par with his God-given skills. To say that Poplawski, now 6-foot-3, peaked during his senior year would be an understatement.
The Georgetown University baseball recruit had an amazing year, earning first-team all-Emerald City League honors for basketball during the winter, when he averaged a league-leading 19.7 points and 11 rebounds per game. During the spring on the baseball diamond, the sterling shortstop batted .429 and recorded a 1.04 ERA on the mound on the way to winning the league MVP crown.
Poplawski’s outstanding performance on the baseball field and the basketball court this school year earned him the honor of being named the Reporter’s Male Athlete of the Year.
“Danny simply works harder than everybody else,” said Overlake head baseball coach Mike Davidson, who first met Danny as his sixth-grade teacher. “He’s clearly got talent, and very, very quick hands, but he works harder in the weight room, on his fundamentals and his quickness. He’s going to go play 80 (baseball) games this summer. That’s just him being very mature and understanding about what it takes to succeed in life.”
SUPER SUPPORT
The mild-mannered Poplawski made sure to credit those around him for giving him the support he needed to improve.
“My (success) has a lot to do with the coaching and the support I got from my parents,” Poplawski said. “Without them I don’t know what I would do, and I definitely had good coaches. Going up through the ranks of high school, I’ve been lucky enough to have seniors and juniors above me who have been excellent leaders.”
Leaders like 2006 Overlake graduate Aaron Richardson-Osgood, who led the Owls to their first and only state basketball trophy four years ago, a fourth-place finish, and is now playing basketball at Division-I Cornell. Or Brett Gardner, another 2006 graduate and three-sport star for Overlake who recently hit a home run in the College World Series for Dartmouth.
“They were a bunch of kids who I looked up to and helped me become the person I am,” Poplawski admitted.
In addition, the extremely talented senior class that Poplawski grew up with has helped him elevate his game to the next level.
“It’s been great, Tommy Castle has been my best friend since like second grade, I played football and baseball with him, tons and tons of games,” Poplawski recalled. “Michael Curtis and Seth (Bensussen) I’ve known since middle school, most of the seniors I’ve known since fifth or sixth grade. It really helps because we know each other so much better, how we play and how we react, and we work better together.”
First and foremost, however, Poplawski lauded his coaches, Davidson and basketball head coach John Wiley, for instilling in him the drive to succeed.
“They really know when you need advice and when to let you figure it out on our own, and that’s a good way for us as players to learn,” said Poplawski.” That’s helped me a lot… they’ve put me through the process of learning the hard way and learning from my mistakes to be in a position to (lead) others and show them what to do.”
HOOPS IS WHERE THE HEART IS
Although Poplawski will be donning a Hoyas jersey next year at Georgetown where he will play third base and enter the School of Business, the recent Overlake graduate noted that basketball was his first love growing up.
“I started with rec basketball and it just kind of stuck with me, I made a lot of friends through it and had fun doing it… it was something to do in my free time,” he said. “There was a point in time where I wasn’t sure if I was going to play baseball.”
Poplawski’s love for the game was carried through select teams growing up through middle school and came to a head last winter, when opposing teams were forced to center their defensive strategy around stopping the sharp-shooting guard, who was just as apt to pull up and drain a three-pointer as he was to penetrate the lane.
“This particular year there was no secret that he was the guy, it was really Danny’s team from the start,” Wiley said. “Every team had to scheme for Danny. They’d double-team him… they’d do a lot of things and he would still hurt them most of the time.”
While many athletes would crack under the pressure of having a target on his back, Poplawski was of a different mold. He went on to average almost 20 points per game and finished second in the league MVP voting to Bellevue Christian standout David Downs.
“What’s great about Danny this year was that he didn’t let that affect him negatively,” added Wiley. “He would kind of rise to that challenge, and he was consistent. Consistency is a hard thing for a 17, 18-year-old kid, but even with all the attention he was getting, drawing the best defenders, in the big games he came up big, and that’s a great role model to other kids.”
A GENTLEMAN AND A SCHOLAR
Poplawski’s standout senior season on the baseball field, which attracted scholarship offers from the University of San Francisco, University of Pennsylvania and Amherst College as well as Georgetown, brought back some great memories, particularly on one special night.
“We beat Bellevue Christian 18-0, and we had four seniors hit home runs on senior night,” said Poplawski, who contributed one of the dingers. “For baseball, this year was one of the best ever.”
A rare four-tool player who could hit for power (four home runs), average (.429), pitch (3-1 record, four earned runs in 27 innings) and play stellar defense at shortstop, Davidson said that Poplawski is one of the most coachable players he’s ever worked with.
“Danny’s a very thoughtful, respectful, well-put-together kid,” Davidson said. “He’s more of a quiet leader than a ‘rah-rah’ guy, but he is as much as any high school kid can be, professional. Every day he shows up on time, ready to go, no problems, no excuses. He knows what his job is, does it, and thanks you on the way out.”
Poplawski’s professionalism translated to success in the classroom at the academics-driven Overlake School, where he was somehow able to balance his dedication to sports with a difficult high school curriculum.
“It was definitely tough, because the coaches expect it from you. You can’t play without having good academics,” said Poplawski, who earned a 3.5 GPA. “It also comes from my parents, because they always told me, ‘You’re going to school here, and are lucky enough to play sports on the side.’ Everyone here knows they are a student first, and I just made sure to not have to look at that as an obstacle.”
While his efforts in the gym during the offseason helped Poplawski reach his athletic potential, his hard work in the classroom ultimately played a huge role in him getting accepted into a prestigious university steeped in tradition, where the sky will be the limit for the young and talented Owl graduate.
“Georgetown, I thought at first was a little out of reach because the academics there are so rigorous, but I got lucky enough where I did well in school and so they still accepted me,” he said. “It took a while to sink in. I always dreamed of playing college ball, and a D-I offer was more than I ever hoped for.”
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HONORABLE MENTION
Michael Conforto, Redmond
In the fall, Conforto did a little bit of everything for the Redmond football team. He was second on the team in rushing with 56 carries for 184 yards and also carried some of the receiving load with 15 receptions for 194 yards. He scored seven touchdowns — four rushing, three receiving. He also played defensive back.
This spring, Conforto tore the cover off the ball and was one of the young catalysts behind a surprising Redmond baseball team (14-2 league, 18-5 overall) that went on to win the Kingco 4A Crest Division after losing 14 seniors to graduation.
The 6-foot-1, 185-pound lefty third baseman stroked six home runs and finished among the league leaders in slugging percentage.
If his super sophomore year was any indication, Conforto will be one to watch on the gridiron and the baseball diamond for the next two years.
