Yariel Diaz is among several members of the Asheboro ZooKeepers who are back this summer for a second season with the Coastal Plain League team. (PJ Ward-Brown / Randolph Record)
ASHEBORO — When it comes to playing baseball in Asheboro in a summer collegiate league, once isn’t enough for some players.
A second season with the Asheboro ZooKeepers was just what they ordered.
“I love the place. I love the host family I’m staying with,” outfielder Davis Germann said. “I love the coaches. They treat me with so much respect, and I knew some of the guys were going to be back here that I made really good friendships with, so that’s kind of what drove me to be back here.”
Infielder Nick O’Brien only spent about a month in Asheboro last year because a wrist injury caused a premature end to his summer baseball. But that didn’t dampen the enthusiasm from what he experienced.
“I had a great time, so I was pumped to get back here,” O’Brien said. “I got a little glimpse of it and I loved it. I wanted to come back.”
Germann, a rising redshirt junior at Morehead State, and O’Brien, a rising junior at Pennsylvania, are among several ZooKeepers who are returnees from the 2024 team. Getting a call from the ZooKeepers was well received.
“They were the ones to reached back out to me and I was really honored by that,” Germann said.
The Coastal Plain League outpost seems like the right place.
“I think the biggest thing was I wanted to play competitive baseball again and I knew exactly what this league was about,” Germann said. “I knew coming back I was going to be more comfortable because that’s a big thing in baseball being comfortable in your environment. I knew I was going to be able to have that.”
O’Brien said he got the same vibe a year ago. He’s hoping that professional scouts will make regular rounds to ZooKeepers games.
“It’s a great league,” he said. “I’m playing great competition, getting better.”
For O’Brien, having coach Korey Dunbar at the helm was a selling point. If Dunbar is around for another season, might as well join him.
“It helps knowing the head coach, being comfortable where I am and trusting him,” O’Brien said. “He’s a very competitive guy and I think that installs competitive into me, too. Playing baseball, you want to be as competitive as possible. I want to play at the next level. I think if I continue to be competitive and put pressure on myself, I’m going to continue to get better. I also love winning, too.”
O’Brien considers his primary position to be shortstop, though he played as a third baseman this year for Penn. Perhaps some of his 2024 Asheboro teammates noticed that situation.
“I kept in contact with some of those guys and I would look online to see how they were doing in their spring,” Germann said of the connections that formed. “I’m interested because they’re my friends now. Guys I’m going to remember forever.”
For O’Brien, there’s another connection to the ZooKeepers. His host family is Katie and Eric Heskett, who’ve housed Penn players for years.
“That’s also another reason I came back,” he said. “I stayed there last year. … I did get comfortable.”
Likewise, Germann said he was happy to be back with his host family, Cathy and John Grey.
Utility player Sal Laimo is another second-year member of the ZooKeepers. He said his host family, Ellen and Bob Brisley, have made it a comfortable setting. He’s making an offseason transition as a college transfer from Barton to USC Aiken, but there was no reason to change his summer address.
“One of the main reasons I came back, I really wanted to win here for the coaches and the owners,” Laimo said.
For Dunbar, who’s responsible for putting together the roster, having returning players can be a bonus.
“It makes my job a lot easier,” Dunbar said. “They know what to expect and they can kind of police the rest of them.”
The ZooKeepers have been one of the CPL’s top teams this season. That’s a good way to build more memories.
“I think the culture here is great,” O’Brien said. “I love the team. The guys on the team are great.”
So even though for many of the players the time together was just a couple of months last year, that has been an idea bridge to another summer of baseball at McCrary Park.
“We were able to talk about our spring seasons when we came back,” Germann said. “It was like we never left.”
