Prell takes love of baseball to collegiate level

Sonja Karp
NLJ Sports Reporter
 
At the tender age of six, Isaac Prell fell in love with America’s game. He began just like every little boy, playing T-ball, and leveled up as he grew until he reached the Senior Babe Ruth league.
His dedication to the sport of baseball has paid off, as he recently signed his letter of intent to play for the Dakota Wesleyan University Tigers next fall.
Over the years, Prell has been active in sports all year round. In addition to playing baseball each year, he also swam with the Stingrays for a few years while in elementary school. When he got to middle school and high school, he ran cross country in the fall, played basketball in the winter, and ran track in the spring. 
But baseball has always been his number one love.
“Baseball is my favorite sport, because I’m actually good at it and can go somewhere with it,” Prell grinned. 
That he has earned a substantial scholarship to play baseball for DWU proves that the sport has already taken him somewhere.
The opportunity did not just fall into his lap, however. Prell made the right moves to put himself in a position to be offered the scholarship.
“I went to Mitchell to visit in November right at the beginning of basketball, then I went back for a scholarship interview a couple of weeks later, and I visited with the coaches then,” he explained. “Two weeks later, the head coach texted me to see if I was still interested in playing baseball and of course I was, and then he offered me a scholarship.”
Simply asking for scholarship consideration was the final step in achieving it. Long before that meeting, Prell was putting in the work to make his dream a reality. He wasn’t just playing baseball during the season, he was working on his skills year-round to ensure his success when it was time to step up to the plate.
“My dad and I would go outside and work on drills all the time,” Prell nodded. “I wanted to be the best I could be, so I worked to make that happen.”
Not only has that work paid dividends for the Newcastle senior in earning him money to pay for college, but it also enabled him to be part of the Newcastle Senior Babe Ruth team who won back-to-back state championships and went on to play in Washington and Canada at the Northwest Regional Tournaments.
Prell will launch his collegiate baseball career in August as training begins for the 2019-2020 season. When he does,
he will be reunited with
former teammate Cam Quigley who is currently playing for the Tigers.
“It’ll be good to have one of my friend’s back and be able to play with Cam again,” Prell exclaimed. “I’m really looking forward to the fun times I feel like I’ll have with the team, on the road trips and just getting to play the game.”
Prell offered some advice to younger kids who are aspiring to play at the collegiate level.
“If you want to play, you need work on your skills outside of season and practice,” he declared. “Make yourself marketable and you have to go after the scholarships. Go talk to them to see if they are interested in you because you can’t wait for it to come to you.”
Prell plans on majoring in Biology at DWU with eventual plans to become a Marine Biologist.