What baseball taught the Central honor student

Central Dutch Athletics

PELLA—The genesis for whatever victories Central College’s Zach Greder (senior, Sloan, Westwood HS) may someday win in his quest to save the Earth can perhaps be traced to a dirt pitching mound in Auburndale, Florida.

Dutch baseball coach Matt Schirm doesn’t even remember the game, an otherwise meaningless 2016 junior varsity contest with Thomas More College (Ky.) during spring break. Greder will never forget it.

It was that day that Greder learned to persevere. Carrying a hefty 3.94 grade point average, Greder is a biology major heading to the University of Colorado School of Law. He’s sat in Washington, D.C. meeting rooms making his case for environmental legislation. But back then he was then a freshman pitcher and what his Central professors hadn’t yet taught him, the Thomas More bats did.

“In high school, I could get by throwing fastball-curve ball, fastball-curve ball and get guys out pretty easily,” Greder said. But then came his first collegiate start in Florida.

“They rocked me,” he recalled with a wince. “I’ve never seen so many doubles in my life. I was like, ‘Whoa, this is completely different.’”

A gusher of negative emotions streamed through his mind as he stared at the hitters parading to the batter’s box.

“Do they have anybody I can get out?,” he asked himself. “I can’t even get their nine hitter (in the batting order) out right now. He’s killing me.”

After being pulled in the second inning Greder sat in the dugout and mindlessly rubbed dirt off his hands as he stared at the ground, silently wishing he could rub away the memory of what just transpired. He concluded he wasn’t good enough.

“That was a tough feeling to come to,” he said.

But then a more rational strategy unfolded. He had to adjust.

“I just kind of changed my mentality,” he said. “I’m not going to get guys out with a 78-79 mph fastball. It’s just not going to work. I kind of had that realization when I was a sophomore. So I added a pitch. I added a slider, which is now my best pitch.”

Struggle, adjust, persist. Tools that Greder thinks will serve him well as the left-hander looks to bring the heat in helping preserve the environment. It’s an effort that’s already launched him into advocacy work in the Iowa Legislature through the Environmental Law Policy Center, and even to the U.S. Capitol, where he met last month with aides to the state’s congressional delegation.

Greder doesn’t think he’d be as prepared for those opportunities had he not labored in the Dutch bullpen.

“Athletics have given me lessons that I never would have learned otherwise,” he said. “I’ve always been good in the classroom. It’s just something that comes natural to me. But as a baseball player, I’m coming out of the bullpen, I’m not a starting pitcher and I’ve had to work really hard to get to the level where I am right now. It gave me a way to learn that you do have to work hard.”

It hasn’t come without frustration. Greder’s new slider wasn’t an overnight answer early in his career, teaching him patience as well as persistence.

“Especially my sophomore year, when I’m thinking I should be way better than I am,” he said. “I had to keep my nose to the grindstone and it’s helped me figure out who I am as a person, just my ability to stick it out even when things aren’t working. I think that’s going to make me a much better lawyer. If I lose a case or I have to work really hard on something, having that core belief that I’m not going to give up, that you continue to stick it out and work your tail off, I think that’s going to make me better.”

Not that that was evident to Greder at the time.

“You never think that when you’re in it but looking back over your career you realize, holy cow, there are a lot of times I could have quit,” he said. “There are a lot of times it would have been easy to say this is a waste of my time, I’m not playing that much, why am I lifting at 6 a.m. and all this stuff. So when those demons come up in the future, which they inevitably will, I think I’m going to be much better-armed to say stop feeling bad for myself. I think that’s the No. 1 things sports has done for me.”

It’s evident to Schirm as well.

“I think that’s the beauty of Division III athletics,” he said. “Some of the life lessons you learn that will help you down the road with your career and your family are even more important than what happens on the field.”

Digging his cleats into a mound of black Iowa dirt is a feeling Greder savors, yet a college baseball career was not part of the original plan. He was drawn to Central because of its powerful football tradition, only to have his hopes derailed due to injuries to his non-throwing shoulder and his back, resulting in multiple surgeries.

“I had three different doctors tell me I shouldn’t play football so at that point I was like, OK, I don’t need a fourth,” he said. “But they said stick with baseball.”

He emailed Schirm, who decided his roster always had room for another pitching arm. After his rocky debut, Greder became a bullpen student, soaking up the instructions of Schirm and assistant Eric Van Wyngarden as he transformed himself into a lefty specialist, called on to face just one or two hitters. He studied Major Leaguers like Brad Hand and Rich Hill, who thrived without unhittable fastballs.

“(Schirm and Van Wyngarden) helped a lot with mechanics and arm slot and then the mentality was just personal growth and trying to learn the game,” Greder said. “And a lot of mental training that came with growing up and maturing.”

Slowly, he saw results.

“He’s improved a ton,” Schirm said. “It’s really just him deciding he wanted to be as good as he can be. He has to work hard at it. He’s very diligent about his training and he’s gotten a lot better because of it.

“He’s developed a really good slider. If he can be consistent with his slider, if he locates it well, it won’t get hit. That’s the big thing is locating it. He knows that and is working really hard on it.”

His academic path took some similarly unexpected turns. Greder arrived on campus eyeing a medical career and chose to major in biology. A course in American politics changed his mind.

“I’m sitting in the library reading these books about the Dietary Supplemental Education Act of 1996 and I can honestly remember thinking to myself, ‘I should hate this, but I don’t,’” he recalled with a laugh. He’d approached the assignment with some reluctance, knowing an evening immersed in legal writing did not rank high on a list of most students’ entertainment options. “At that point I realized I should really look into going into law school and do something policy related because this is really interesting to me.”

He met with his adviser Russ Benedict, professor of biology, and political science professor Andrew Green, who told him his biology major would actually be beneficial for a career in environmental energy law.

Greder’s passion for the environment was planted earlier.

“As a kid we recycled, and I understood it from the standpoint of you get a nickel back for every pop bottle you put in, but once I got to college I started digging into climate change and just how important nature is to us as humans,” he said. “But then also from a spiritual standpoint, I’m a pretty devout Christian, and I see the world as something God created and I’m a piece of that but I’m no more important than anything else.

“All of that kind of folded into where I am now, which is I love the beauty of the earth, that’s important, but I also think with climate change, there are pieces of it that can really harm us as humans. This is the biggest problem of our time and to be a part of helping solve that is empowering and, I don’t know, noble, in a sense, I guess. I think that’s part of it, too, that sense that I want to be part of something that’s really important.”

Greder eagerly sought opportunities extending beyond the classroom. He spent last summer working with the Woodbury County Conservation board near his rural Iowa hometown, clearing prairie and assisting with wildlife management. On campus, he partnered with teammate Cam Fitzpatrick (senior, Solon) to make Central a tree-certified campus as part of a sustainability project to earn a spot in McKee Hall, a student residence unit made up of six eight-student pods. The building received a Gold LEED certification and utilizes solar energy, water-saving facilities and other sustainable features.

“We kind of underestimated how much work that would be, but it was pretty cool because we actually got the certification,” Greder said.

Brian Campbell, director of sustainability education, liked the way Greder sparked enthusiasm with other pod residents, many of whom were baseball teammates.

“He’s very collaborative,” Campbell said. “He worked hard with the other guys in the pod on that.”

Greder travels to Des Moines twice a week for his work with the Environmental Law Policy Center. He conducts policy research for bills in the Iowa Legislature, develops talking points, meets with lawmakers and listens how they talk about legislation to help determine priorities.

“I think most people think lobbying is like dark money and whispers in the hallways but it’s really quite simple,” Greder said. “You just go sit down at a table and tell them why you think something’s good or something’s bad. It’s really been enlightening to learn how the system works and how easy it is to really be involved.”

Greder was surprised that legislators in both parties are receptive to his messaging.

“But it’s also kind of frustrating,” he said. “One of the bills we were definitely against, when it went through the Senate, it passed 29-18. I spent hours and hours and hours on finding research and talking to these senators, telling them ‘Hey, this is why it’s bad.’ And then it passed in five minutes.”

It’s real-world stuff, said Campbell.

“He’s been right in the thick of that, meeting with legislators and lobbyists, trying to impact the debate,” he said.

Campbell is a valuable resource. He serves as president of Iowa Interfaith Power and Light, an advocacy group for clean energy and learned of an opportunity to send a student to Washington, D.C. for an advocacy initiative through the Environmental Defense Fund.

“They knew they had the kind of relationship with Central that we’d find the right student,” Campbell said. “They trust us and we trust them.”

Campbell knew who to call.

“Zach’s the kind of student I felt comfortable sending,” he said.

Greder met with about 20 groups and received advice on speaking with legislators before meeting with several legislative assistants.

“We had really good responses,” Greder said. “It was interesting because it was taking some of the things we’ve been doing at the statehouse to the national level.”

Advocacy work requires building collaboration rather than confrontation. Campbell sees that ability in Greder, and how his baseball experience helps.

“I’ve definitely seen him get excited about that,” he said. “He’s got that drive to achieve a goal. Usually that means working within a team.”

It’s a trait Schirm noticed right away.

“He has the respect of the guys,” Schirm said. “He’s very vocal and has a great personality. Guys are attracted to that.”

Greder has appeared in just two games in 2019, throwing 2.2 innings, yet he’s taken on a leadership role.

“When things go wrong, who’s going to be there to right the ship, just mentally?,” Greder said. “I think that’s one of my strengths. And also, when things are going good, who’s going to be the one to say, ‘Hey, let’s all just keep level?’ I think that’s one of my strengths, that’s how I try to contribute throughout the fall and the spring.”

It’s why he was chosen for the team’s leadership council, serving as a co-captain.

“I really trust his judgment when I’m trying to get the pulse of the team,” Schirm said. “He’s a very socially intelligent kid.”

He even handles the team’s Twitter feed.

“We call him Greder the Tweeter,” Schirm said with a laugh.

He also strengthens the team’s academic culture.

“We talk about academics a lot,” Schirm said. “Having a guy who’s one of our leaders who’s also one of our best students, it just kind of validates the idea that academics are important here and that you can be a good student, work hard on the field, be a good athlete.”

Greder chose Colorado because of its highly rated environmental energy program—as well as the full-tuition scholarship he was awarded–but also because of its strength in other areas. He values the varied directions his academic and athletics paths have taken at Central and is ready for new opportunities to develop.

“He has an appreciation for the fact that there are lots of ways to practice environmental law,” Campbell said. “I definitely see him being open to all of that.”

Greder has no idea where it will all lead and is comfortable with that.

“Before I started this internship, I thought I would just go to a firm and work there and work on tariffs,” he said. “I saw myself being more on the legal side. Now that I’m working on advocacy, I’m in this place where I really don’t know what I’m going to do. I know I want to work in the law doing some of the work that goes with litigating this stuff. That would be awesome, but if it’s advocacy at the state level, like here, or even at the national level, that would be great. I would say I’m free-flowing right now. I’m not so much worried about post-law school. I’m sure opportunities will arise, kind of like this.”

But first, Greder has unfinished business on the baseball field. The Dutch raced to an 11-1 start on the team’s spring-break trip to Florida, the program’s best ever, and are 21-13. They’re positioned to return to the six-team league tournament after a one-year absence, currently sitting in fifth place in the American Rivers. But they have loftier goals.

“For most of the season, I’ll get a few opportunities but as a team we’ll all have this hope, and I think it’s realistic, that we’re going to win the conference tournament, and I think that we could make a deep run,” Greter said. “I think it’s going to be important to have a lot of pitching. We’re going to need match-up type pitching in those high-level, high-pressure games and, I said this before, if we’re going to win the conference tournament, I’m going to be a big piece of that. And whether that’s on the field or even off the field, I see myself as being a leader.

Schirm agrees.

“His leadership is outstanding,” Schirm said. “Regardless of how many innings he throws the rest of the year, he plays a huge role in whatever success we have.”

Schirm admires Greder’s persistence.

“He’s got just a few games left in his college career yet he’s still fighting really hard to get better and to have a role,” he said. “He knows his primary role is as a leader but there may come a time when he gets an opportunity on the field. You get to conference tournament time and you’re stacking so many games together in a short period of time, often there’s somebody that didn’t pitch much during the year that has to step up. I could see him being that guy. When and if that moment comes, he’s going to be ready for it.”

And Schirm predicts Greder’s athletics traits will translate into his career.

“When he told me he’s going to law school, I thought, yeah, that fits,” Schirm said. “You take his book smarts and his people smarts along with the work ethic and the bulldog mentality, you put all that together and I could see him being very successful as a lawyer. He thinks on his feet really well.”

Greder’s grateful for every mile of his four-year Central ride.

“I’ve had so many opportunities here,” he said. “Even just emailing the baseball coach and saying hey, can I join the team. That would not have happened at a lot of places. That’s been a huge part of my life. The fact that I got called on a Wednesday and I’m flying to D.C. seven days later, that doesn’t happen at a big school or all these other places, especially for a kid who’s playing baseball. At another school, they’d make you focus only on baseball. I’ve had opportunities that I don’t think I could have had anywhere else.

“I would say, 1000 percent, I made the right decision to come to Central.”