MEMPHIS, Tenn. — Two Lausanne seniors have signed to play college baseball. Devin Meyers will head to Christian Brothers University while Remi Schaber signed with Hood College.
Schaber was the Lynx starting third baseman, a relief pitcher, and the only female high school baseball player in the Memphis area. Next year, she will be one of just seven women playing at the college level.
"It's not really something I think about, being a girl on the baseball field," Schaber said. "It's been something I've been doing my entire life. It's a part of me now, and something I couldn't not see myself doing for the next four years."
"She deserves to be out there," Meyers said. "I would put her against half the guys I know."
Schaber and Meyers have played together since they were 10 years old. Back then, Remi was first met with resistance about playing on.
"You have to go to softball," she remembers coaches telling her. "I told my dad I don't want to do that. And he was like, if you don't want to do it, I'm not going to force you."
Instead, her father found teams that would allow her to play—all the way through high school.
"I talked to her dad, he asked me 'Would you give her a fair shot?'" said Christ Mitchell, head baseball coach at Lausanne. "I said absolutely. We'll give anyone a fair shot. As long as he and Remi understood that nothing was given because you are a female trying to play baseball. Everything had to be earned."
And that included the weight room.
"Obviously all the freshman, when they first get here have got a long way to go," Mitchell said. "But by her senior year, she was right in the mix with the rest of them."
Schaber has been hit by more pitches than any of her teammates over the last two seasons, but you won't find her complaining.
When other teams disrespect her, she takes pride in proving them wrong.
"We had a team that actually brought their outfield in real shallow," Mitchell recalled of one summer game. "She ends up hitting one about 375 dead center for a triple. It's pretty rewarding when you see that as a coach, but I know that must have been rewarding for her."
The greatest reward for Remi is seeing the impact her career has had.
"A lot of little girls have come up to me and be like 'Oh my gosh, you're playing!'" Schaber said. "I want to play too, but sometimes you're playing for more than just yourself.
I hope we do get to the point whether it be as a school, as a city, as a country, where there's a lot of girls playing baseball."
"Remi proved it," Mitchell said. "If you want to do it and you want to work for it, you can get there."