By Joe Vanden Acker
Lawrence Today magazine, Spring 2005
Korey Krueger, ’95, has just crawled into bed. His
two small children are asleep, and he has kissed his wife goodnight. The
two cats, Mickey and Maris, are curled up together. His head is ready
to hit the pillow after a day in the office and an evening at practice.
Then the phone rings. He looks over at the clock, 10:15.
The Lawrence University baseball coach doesn’t have to answer because
he knows who it is. He’d bet next month’s pay that it’s
Andrew Wong.
“Hello.”
“Hey, Coach. It’s Wong. Can you meet me at the gym so I can take
some BP (baseball parlance for batting practice)?”
“Sure. I’ll be there in a few minutes.”
On one hand, Krueger can’t help but shake his head and wonder why this
young man can’t get enough of the game. On the other hand, he smiles
at this guy’s work ethic. Check that, this isn’t like any other
work ethic he’s ever known. Let’s call it the “Wong ethic.”
“I used to get worried when I got that phone call, but the nice thing
is that 98 percent of the time it’s Wong. Two percent of the time it’s
my mom,” Krueger says. “If I don’t answer the phone, he
will come to our house and knock on the door until we wake up. It’s
something my wife and I accept.”
It would be hard to argue that there is a harder-working athlete on the Lawrence
University campus than Andrew Wong, ’06, the Vikings’ star shortstop.
He gets in a workout virtually every day in the off-season — workouts
that range from stretching to plyometrics to weight training to throwing
to hitting.
Not only is Wong far from your average ballplayer, he also is far from your
average student. He owns a 3.9 grade-point average and is majoring in history.
He doesn’t have his future mapped out just yet, but he is considering
law school, medical school, and business school after Lawrence.
Wong says of Krueger: “He’s a really hard-working coach, and
he’s done anything he can to help me. Not many coaches keep a player
in the lineup who’s hitting .150 their freshman year. The confidence
he showed in me helped me improve.”
Wong struggled through his freshman campaign and batted .154. He started
26 of the 30 games that season because Krueger was convinced the young
man would be a great player. The coach’s instincts were right — Wong
put together an impressive sophomore campaign in 2004. He batted .397 and
broke the school records for hits (46) and doubles (13) in a season. He
earned first-team All-Midwest Conference and second-team All-Midwest Region
honors.
“When Jason Shanda came back to campus and watched him play last year,
the first thing he said was, ‘There go my records,’” says
Krueger, who also coached Shanda, a 2002 graduate and one of the finest
players in
recent Lawrence history.
“Nothing is safe with him around because every record is going to fall.
He’s
a guy who, because he’s very selective at the plate, potentially
can bat over .500.”
The eye-popping numbers Wong is starting to put up are the fruits of his
labor inside Alexander Gymnasium. The Wauwatosa native works with Glen
Werns, a personal trainer from Milwaukee, to put together workouts that
other athletes
on the Lawrence campus look at and wonder, “What the heck is that
guy doing?”
“[Werns] really pushes me to my limit by developing baseball-specific workouts,” Wong
says.
“It’s different from what another athlete might do. I try not to
work as hard but to work smarter, be more focused. I try to work against myself,
so that each year I’m getting better.”
Krueger described a recent workout he saw at Alexander. Wong had his back
against the wall and was holding a rope that had a three-pound plyometric
ball attached to it. He was swinging it from side to side, with the ball
touching the wall on either side of his body.
If you are another baseball player watching this, you may wonder how that
is going to help him hit a curveball. Then you watch Wong play the game,
and, as he laces another pitch into the gap, you think, “Maybe I
should be doing some of this stuff.”
“He sets a standard for everyone, players and coaches,” Krueger says, “and
he’s gained the respect of his teammates. He has everything in his
life, and he still manages to do it pretty well. The more you think about
it, the more you are in awe of him.”
They may respect him, but it would be hard for most mortals to match his
training regimen. Wong says he works out five to six times a week. In addition,
he does a stretching routine four times a week. Wait, there’s more.
“This year I’ve been throwing and hitting with Anthony Kouba [’05],
my roommate,” Wong says. “We try to go three or four times
a week, hit and throw, long toss, and hit in the cage.”
This ability to work hard and work smart has its roots in childhood. He
recalls days when it would be snowing but his father, Paul, would be hitting
him
ground balls to work on his fielding.
“I guess I’ve always been driven to succeed,” Wong says. “I’ve
had a dream of playing baseball since I was little. It was a goal I was
working toward.”
With the academic rigors associated with Lawrence, the natural question
is where does this guy find time to study. The scary thing is he says he
has
more time on his hands now than he ever has.
“I think I have really good time management. At Lawrence, it’s almost
easier than it was in high school. I’m not in school seven hours
a day so I can manage my time even better,” Wong says.
Don’t be concerned that all this young man does is play baseball
and study, however.
“I like watching movies and hanging out with my friends,” Wong says. “I
think that’s really important, too. If you’re going to succeed
and you don’t have good people around you, it’s almost worthless.
“Baseball used to be the only thing I saw as important. Now, friends,
school, family are more important. Baseball has a high priority, but I see life
from
a better perspective.”
Wong says he is attempting to figure out what he will do with his life
after Lawrence. While he’s here, baseball will continue to play a large role.
The main goal is to see the Vikings succeed as a team and play for a Midwest
Conference championship. He’s hopeful someone will notice the shortstop
on that team and give him a shot to play at the professional level.
“I’m hoping to have good enough years here that someone will give
me a chance to play baseball after college,” he says.
Krueger says that Wong continues to improve his all-around game. His arm
strength has improved dramatically, and he recently hit 88 miles per hour
on the radar gun.
“He can do whatever he wants to do. He can write his ticket with his grades.
He’s no different academically than he is athletically. He seeks
excellence wherever he goes. He is what Lawrence wants a scholar-athlete
to be. He is a great student and a great athlete, and he contributes to
campus
life,” Krueger
says.
“He’s gotten stronger, bigger, and faster, and he has more velocity.
These are the things scouts look for. He’s a tremendous wood bat
hitter. I don’t know where it can lead him, but I know if someone
gave him a shot, he would do everything he could to be successful.”