2011 Gazette Male Athlete of the Year: Derrick Loveless

SOLON - “The Decision” wasn't supposed to be about staying home or moving to Florida, like that Lebron guy from the NBA. It just turned out that way for Derrick Loveless.

Picking a sport to pursue after high school was difficult enough for a kid who did about everything and excelled at about everything at Solon High School. He was an all-stater in football and baseball, a state champion track and field sprinter and a basketball player through his sophomore year.

Best friend Marshall Koehn convinced him to try soccer for the first time since he was a little kid this spring, despite track and baseball going on at the same time. Naturally, Loveless excelled as a goalkeeper, helping Solon to the Class 1A state championship game.

Little wonder he's the 2011 recipient of The Gazette's Male Athlete of the Year award.

“I always just wanted to be active,” Loveless said. “The more sports I did, the happier I was ... I knew it was ultimately going to be baseball or football for me. My mom wanted me to play baseball, my dad wanted me to play football. I took my time with it, saw the progress I was making in both.”

And went with baseball, committing about a year ago to the University of Iowa. But a funny thing happened on his way to becoming a Hawkeye.

The Toronto Blue Jays intervened, choosing him in the 27th round of Major League Baseball's First-Year Player Draft in June. Suddenly “The Decision” had a second part to it.

Loveless signed a contract with the Jays two weeks ago and is at the club's minor-league complex in Dunedin, Fla., awaiting his first game with the Rookie-level Gulf Coast League Jays.

“I've always told Derrick ‘Follow your heart and do what you feel is right,'” said his mother, Anna Kotar. “I just think he wanted to have no regrets. Who knows if he ever would have gotten this chance again?”

Life right now for the 6-foot-2, 200-pound left-handed hitting outfielder is monotonous: wake up about 6 a.m. in the hotel room he and his roommate will live in the rest of the season, take a five-minute bus ride to the field, eat breakfast, go through a myriad drills, take batting practice and return “home” by 1 or 2 p.m.

Get up the next day and do it again. Welcome to pro baseball, kid.

“He really is enjoying it,” Kotar said. “He has yet to call me and tell me he has had a bad day.”

“At first, I didn't know anyone, so it was kind of tough,” Loveless said. “But it's a lot easier now. I like my roommate, we get along well. We've got similar personalities.”

Loveless's roommate is Jake Anderson, a prep outfielder from California that was the 35th-overall draft pick in June. Loveless will return home late this month for a couple of weeks before heading back to Florida for fall Instructional League.

He has a lot of people in Solon and surrounding areas wishing him the absolute best in his pursuit of the major leagues.

“I've told everyone that once he concentrates on a particularly sport, he is going to succeed,” said Solon football coach Kevin Miller. “Obviously he is a very gifted athlete. He has great size, runs exceptionally well. But what goes unnoticed by most people is his exceptional work ethic. ... He's a great kid, a character kid. That's what I've always enjoyed about him.”

“He has had very positive values instilled in him his whole life,” said Solon baseball coach and athletics director Keith McSweeney. “A very humble kid. Part of a tight-knit group of guys that always helped steer each other in the right direction.”

That group of guys enjoyed unbelievable success at Solon.

The school has won four consecutive state football titles and two straight baseball championships. The basketball program secured a state title in 2009 and had a runner-up finish in 2010, losing in the substate finals this season.

The soccer team qualified for state for the first time this spring, losing in overtime to rival Iowa City Regina in the title game. The track and field team won it all in 2010.

“When they were in elementary school, they were the guys the teachers would complain about at recess getting into fights and being very (energetic),” Solon track coach Mark Sowers said. “It's so amazing the camaraderie those guys had.”

“I remember (classmate) Tyler Smith's mom always telling me how organized they were at recess,” Kotar said. “The teachers were amazed how those guys always had teams all picked out for games.”

Those guys include Iowa baseball signee Nick Day, Iowa Central Community College baseball signee Brandon Shulista and Iowa walk-on football kicker Koehn. Loveless wasn't exactly a vocal leader, more the quiet, show-it-on-the-field type.

“Derrick is introverted when you first meet him,” Kotar said. “But once you get to know him, he's got a real good sense of humor. It's there. You've just got to get to know him.”

“Since kindergarten we've always been tied together as a group,” he said of his friends. “Our relationship started there. Yeah, we always had a lot of success (growing up), but there were losing times, too.”

Kotar raised her son in a single-parent home, working a lot of overtime at her job at Procter & Gamble in Iowa City to help Derrick get to various sports camps and baseball showcases. Derrick's father, former Iowa football player Derrius Loveless, always has been an active part of his life as well.

Derrick's half-sister, Jessica Gehrke, was last year's Gazette Female Athlete of the Year. He said the two have a good relationship, attending as many of each other's athletics events as possible.

Gehrke, a former Iowa City West prep, plays volleyball at Florida International University in Miami.

“Mom has been a big part of my life,” Derrick said. “She has always supported me in everything I've done. My dad has been very supportive, too. I mean, my mom and I have had our ups and downs. But when it comes down to it, she's got my back. I always know that.”