“I would classify my parents as the most unathletic people one could ever meet,” Morgalis says. “I think my dad was in the high school band; that was the extent of his athleticism. My mom was always the last picked in gym class.”

Confessing confusion over the origin of his own athletic skills—he played three sports in high school—Morgalis more than made up for suspect beginnings with his baseball prowess. He played for Midland during the summers from age 14 to 18, and the 90-game schedules which dominated his life paid off with a national championship when he was 17. His most memorable baseball moments came while on the Notre Dame team which advanced to the College World Series his freshman year.

For all his success on the diamond, Morgalis has plans that go beyond baseball. A former class president and founder of the Republican Club at Sycamore, he’s aiming for law school after graduation and eventually aspires to hold national office. His heroes include his parents, whom he admires for “letting [my sisters and me] do what we want, screwing up and learning from it,” and Mike Maundrell, his coach from his teenage years.

“I liked his approach to the game and the way he taught me how to play,” Morgalis says of Maundrell. “On top of that he was a big time attorney, so I saw that balance.”

Currently, however, Morgalis is more focused on balancing baseball with academics than pre-law and beyond.

“A peace comes over my body when I’m on the baseball field,” he says. “Baseball is a part of me, especially here, that you can have so much fun with. This place is full of stress, everything about it, so to walk over that river [from the campus to the athletic fields], it’s a total transformation into me being me.”

One specific form of stress relief Morgalis cites is the Kangaroo Court that the team’s seniors set up to extract “fines” to fund an end-of-season celebration. Morgalis has had his share of penalties because of the “stupid sayings” that spout so readily from his mouth.

Perhaps more fitting than the sayings, however, Morgalis earned himself a new nickname, courtesy of his appointed role of treasurer—look out for Mikey “Crowbar” Morgalis, coming soon to a ballot near you.

—Staff writer Brenda E. Lee can be reached at fas.harvard.edu.