It would seem that Luke Jamison was always destined to play baseball when he grew up.
“My dad (John David) played baseball all through college, so, when I came along after my two older sisters, there was probably no doubt, at least for my dad, that baseball would be in my future. I think my first word was ball”, laughed the Muskogee High junior.
As he got into high school, he was called on to play several positions, including six last year, which earned him the nickname Mr. Utility on the Rougher squad.
Luke’s coach John Singler has known Luke since sixth grade.
“He does everything right on and off the field and is always willing to play a position or lay down a bunt for the team’s sake,” said the coach.
This season Luke has settled back into the catcher’s spot where he says he started out when he was younger.
“I like playing catcher best because I like being able to feel I have some control of what’s going on,” said Jamison who is also in FCA, student council and Science Club at Muskogee High.
Growing up he liked watching Yankee great Derek Jeter who had lots of memorable quotes about hard work and Luke’s dad often paraphrased one of those.
“My dad always says, ‘it doesn’t take talent to work hard’ and I’ve always tried to live by that,” said Luke.
With just one senior on this year’s Rougher squad, Luke has stepped into a leadership role.
“We had a lot of seniors last year, but I don’t feel like we had a lot of leadership. I just didn’t feel like many of them really bought into the program, so I knew I needed to step up this year and be more vocal.”
Luke has already cemented one highlight into his high school career.
“Last year in our regional game against Broken Arrow we scored seven runs in the last inning to get a big win. I started the inning with a hit, and we batted around and I came back up and drew a bases-loaded walk for literally a walk-off win. It was a lot of fun to start and end that comeback.”