For junior Anthony Dunn, this summer he had an opportunity to play baseball for the Rochester Honkers of the Northwoods League. The experience, although not very long, is one that Dunn believes will help him as he prepares for another two-sport year at Doane. Dunn finished the 2009 football campaign as the third ranked passer in the Great Plains Athletic Conference. In the 2010 baseball season, Dunn was one of the top catchers behind the plate as he threw out 48-percent of attempted base stealers.
Now, entering his third season as a two-sport athlete, Dunn hopes that the experience he had this past summer will pay dividends in his development.
"I learned a lot from playing in Rochester," Dunn recalled. "I learned more about being a catcher, such as receiving and throwing to bases. But what I learned most could also help me with football."
There is an old saying that 90-percent of a sport is mental. Then if you listen to former Yankee catcher Yogi Berra, "Baseball is 90-percent mental, the other half is physical".
For Dunn, the area he does feel he learned the most about was mental preparation.
"I saw how these players (in Rochester) prepared mentally for each game and how they dealt with adversity. They were very mentally strong and talking to many of them it made me a strong competitor and better at dealing with adversity."
Dunn says that the mental side of athletics is the toughest thing to overcome but through the adversity he has gone through his first two years at Doane along with his experience this summer, he believes it has made him a better athlete.
Dunn was signed by Rochester to a short-term contract because a couple of their catchers were still playing when the Northwoods League started play. He played for about two weeks and points out two experiences that will stay with him.
The first, Dunn says, was the first home game when he started behind the plate. It was a packed house, approximately 1,800 fans, and he was catching Bret Mitchell of Mankato State University and a 12th-round draft pick of the New York Mets. Dunn finished the game going 1-for-3 with a run and RBI.
In his final game with the Honkers, they trailed by one run in the top of the ninth. Dunn came up to the plate with the bases loaded and two outs, and much like the Doane baseball team this year with two outs, he came through with a line-drive single up the middle to plate the tying and eventual winning runs.
Dunn says it best and shows the makings of a true leader when speaking of the two moments.
"Both of those games had me feeling great about my individual performances but the experiences were better because the team won."
The Tigers and Anthony Dunn will get the football season underway on September 4 at No. 5 Morningside College in a 7:00 PM kick-off.