A true swiss army-knife for the Warner Monarchs, Drew Bakeberg made the most of his high school career, had fun and made many memories along the way.

Bakeberg competed in four different sports, one for each season.

His senior year, he dropped track and field to focus on football, basketball and baseball. Competing in three sports, Bakeberg said the key was to have fun.

“Just having fun with it. Not getting down on yourself. You’re gonna go through some rough patches. You’ll go up and down just like life,” Bakeberg said. “You just gotta stay even keel with everything. Don’t get too high, don’t get too low on yourself.”

Even though he was enjoying the experience, playing sports essentially year around takes a toll on a body. Bakeberg was able to manage a busy schedule to help insure he would stay healthy.

“I just recovered stretching. I stretched quite a bit and foam roll, and stuff like that. Iced a bit here and there,” Bakeberg said. “Just give my body rest when it needs rest. Like on the weekend, if I have nothing going on, I’m just gonna stay at home and relax, and be smart with my body.”

Before Bakeberg led the Warner football team under center his senior year, he spent his prior years as the scout team quarterback behind Hunter Cramer, who is just a year older than Bakeberg.

“I was scout team quarterback for a very long time. I took reps at scout quarterback like I was gonna play that week,” Bakeberg said. “Like when we went to the state championship two years ago, I prepared just as hard as every one of the starters ‘cause I knew, what if Hunter went down, I’d be prepared to step up. I prepared like I was a starter all four years.”

Not everyone is excited to be on scout team, but Bakeberg took it as an opportunity to grow.

“I always enjoyed scout team. Scout was very fun and enjoyable,” Bakeberg said. “It made the starters compete against us, challenge us. We got hit in the head, but we got right back up.”

Getting the starting role his senior year, it took Bakeberg a few snaps to fully get comfortable at the helm of the offense.

“I stepped into a role that I was not ready for right away. But then once I got myself under my feet, got to the first game against Castlewood and was like ‘Oh I can do this,’” said Bakeberg. “I can be a leader on this team that can help us win football games down the road.”

Bakeberg led the Monarchs to a 10-1 season only losing in the semifinals of the playoffs to unbeaten Howard, which won the Class 9A state title this past fall.

“Going into playoffs, I was a little more nervous cause it was my first ever playoff start, but once I got through the first drive of the Gayville-Volin game, I was like ‘Yeah, I’ll be alright,’” Bakeberg said. “It’s just another game. Just go out there and just play.”

Once the season was over, he wasted no time getting into the gym to get into basketball shape.

“To me, it just meshes into one season. As soon as football ended, I was immediately in the gym shooting the ball,” Bakeberg said. “I don’t know, that’s just who I am.”

Being only one of two returning starters, Bakeberg had to lead the team in more ways than one.

“I just like to have fun with everything. It obviously feels great to be the leading scorer and stuff like that, but it’s a team game. You can’t win games by yourself,” Bakeberg said. “It was just big that our young guys could step up like Alec (Mikkelsen) and Noah (Bakeberg) and Brennan (Wolf-Donat) and all these younger guys just to step up.”

Bakeberg was the leading scorer for the Monarchs, but also motivated the younger crew to step up throughout the season.

“I just kind of coach them up a little bit. I was pretty much like another coach on the floor,” said Bakeberg. “It was just trying to make them feel coachable and comfortable, and get them to feel comfortable on the floor. Just play free, don’t care if you make a turnover, don’t care if you make a mistake, just play free. If you make one, who cares.”

After his basketball season ended, Bakeberg went straight to baseball, first high school in the spring and then American Legion this summer. In a game where a 30 percent average is considered a success, Bakeberg said again the key is just to have fun.

“I just go out there and have fun in baseball. I go out there with a bunch of guys who wanna play baseball and just have fun,” Bakeberg said. “It’s fun to be a leader on the team, but I don’t care who the leader is on that team. I really just enjoy having fun.”

Bakeberg plays multiple positions for Warner-Ipswich-Northwestern (W-I-N). He usually finds himself captaining the outfield, but was behind the plate this past Monday night.

“I enjoy playing every position I can. Like (Monday) night in the Groton Junior Legion game, I caught,” Bakeberg said. “I played shortstop in the Legion game and then who knows (Tuesday night), I’ll probably play centerfield and pitcher or something like that. It’s just fun to play every position on the field.”

Not only did that versatility show up in baseball, but Bakeberg found himself doing whatever he could to help all of his teams be successful.

“I just do everything I can to get ready for every position pretty much. Say in basketball, if the center goes down and they can’t guard the tallest guy, I’ll be there. I’ll guard the tallest guy on the court,” Bakeberg said. “In football, if a DB goes down, I used to play DB when I was younger, like freshman, sophomore, junior year. I would be ready to go play that position.”

In just about all sports, failure can happen just as much as success. Bakeberg deals with that by having a short-term memory.

“For me, I think it’s one of the most important things in sports,” Bakeberg said. “Say if you miss a three and you just get down on yourself, you’re not gonna make that three ever again. You just gotta stay even keel.”

While Bakeberg finished up his career as a Monarch, he hopes that he can lead the younger generation in the right direction.

“Just being a leader and being a good guy. Just helping the younger kids out, being a mentor to the younger kids,” Bakeberg said. “I love being a mentor to all these young kids that are looking up to the older guys. Like, I want to be someone that’s looked up to.”

Bakeberg will attend Northern in the fall and will look to team up with some former rivals in intramural sports on campus.

“I know a few kids that are going to Northern, like this is gonna be fun. I get to play with them. I get to play with some Ipswich kids, Groton kids, Northwestern or Leola-Frederick kids,” Bakeberg said. “It’ll be fun playing with those guys and playing somebody new. Playing someone from out of state from like Colorado or California. I think it’ll be fun to just play new people.”