HARLAN -- Like many kids growing up, Tyler Lefeber played sports whenever he got the chance.
While in high school, he spent a year on the wrestling team as a freshman, took part in CYO Basketball and was a starting linebacker and top tackler for the Harlan Community football team last fall.
But make no mistake about it: when it comes to athletics, Lefeber is a baseball player first, and it didn't take him long in life to figure that out.
"Probably the first memory of baseball was playing catch with my dad in our front yard," he said. "I knew baseball was my favorite sport from a pretty early age. It's been my best sport by far, I guess.
"(I grew up) with it with my dad, getting to know the game better, playing with a bunch of different guys and just getting out there on the field."
Lefeber's dedication to the game is evident in the amount of time he puts into it. Between his sophomore and juniors seasons, Tyler and his cousin, Eric Croghan, built a heated indoor batting cage and adjacent pitching mound inside the barn on his grandmother Stella Lefeber's farm, near Portsmouth. The two of them, along with Croghan's brother and sister, practiced there during the cold winter months.
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"We'd throw and hit," Lefeber said. "I think that helped a lot."
The numbers would agree.
After totaling just 13 at-bats combined as a freshman and sophomore, Lefeber batted .340 and .389 his final two years and drove in 84 total runs while splitting time as a pitcher, first baseman and designated hitter. On the mound, he went 15-2 over 2008-2009, bringing his career pitching record to 22-6 with two saves and a 2.67 earned run average.
Lefeber, a Buena Vista University baseball recruit, went 5-0 this past summer and led HCHS with seven home runs and a .674 slugging percentage as the Cyclones completed a historic 30-3 season, making them 60-9 the last two years. His 44 RBI trailed only one teammate - his cousin, Eric.
A first-team All-State selection in Class 3-A, Lefeber is being honored again today as the 2009 Harlan Newspapers' All-Area Baseball Player of the Year. It is the 16th straight year that a Cyclone has claimed the award, and if character counts for anything, Lefeber is doubly qualified.
Last spring, the son of Dean and Cindy Lefeber, Harlan, received the Bernie Saggau Award on HCHS Senior Awards Night. According to the school's description, the honor is presented to the athlete who "reflects strong religious and moral convictions, living and professing the qualities of honesty, integrity and sportsmanship, and believing both games and life should be conducted by the rules."
In addition to sports, Lefeber's extracurricular activities reflect many of the above qualities. He was active in MYF (Methodist Youth Fellowship), Habitat for Humanity and a mentoring program at HCHS, while also earning the Iowa FFA Degree and attending the State FFA Convention three times.
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Lefeber was one of the friendliest kids to walk the halls at HCHS, but put him on the mound and he was all bulldog. His fastball reached speeds of 86-87 mph at times the last two years, mixed with a deceptive change-up and dependable curve.
Lefeber learned to balance stuff with command. As a junior and senior, he averaged less than two walks per complete-game effort (30 total in 111.7 innings) while striking out close to one batter an inning.
"My velocity has gotten a lot better, (and) location," he noted. "I never really got too nervous pitching, just knowing I could do (well) in certain situations."
Before he became a fixture in the middle of the Cyclone lineup, Lefeber made his early impressions solely on the mound. He pitched 16.7 innings as a freshman, going 1-1 with one save and a 2.10 ERA, and still remembers his first varsity appearance in a tough relief spot against Kuemper.
"It was a pretty close game when I went in the first time, and I wasn't expecting that at all," he said. "It was pretty cool."
One season later, Lefeber joined the Cyclone rotation and went 6-3 with a save, including a district final win against Glenwood.
He saved some of the best pitching of his life, however, for the Cyclones' run to a 3-A state runner-up finish in 2008. Pitching four straight complete games in the postseason, Lefeber fired 14 innings at state without allowing an earned run, including an overpowering three-hitter with 12 strikeouts against Estherville-Lincoln Central. He yielded just one unearned run in the Cyclones' 1-0 title game loss to Centerville.
Lefeber says that playing in the State Tournament will always be one of his best memories of Cyclone baseball, along with the great chemistry of the team, year in and year out.
"We always had a lot of fun. Everybody on the team got along. It was just a great bunch of guys to play with," he said.
"Getting to throw those two games (at state) in the first place was big, and then being able to do well was awesome, too. Having Eric back there as a catcher really helped. I can trust him to catch whatever I throw. He was a big part of my success as a pitcher."
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After going 10-2 with a 1.38 ERA as a junior, Lefeber was 5-0 this summer in 30 fewer innings. The decreased workload was the result of a shorter postseason run as well as splitting the pitching duties in three games with fellow senior Bobby Seivert.
Lefeber's ERA rose to 3.27, but when your offense scores 10 runs a night, it's okay to pitch to contact more often, resulting in a few more hits and runs. Lefeber also says he was working on some mechanical changes early in the year that altered his command a bit.
"I changed a couple things over the winter and I was still working things out," he said. "I just wasn't locating where I should've been at the beginning of the year."
One of the reasons that HCHS averaged 10 runs per game was due to Lefeber's bat in the clean-up spot. The .389 hitter clubbed seven of the team's 14 homers to go with six doubles, 37 total hits and 23 walks.
Lefeber says he was pleased with the back-to-back 40-plus RBI seasons, but only wishes he could have struck out less and avoided slumps. He changed his swing slightly this summer based around a drill by Coach Steve Daeges that helped him reach more outside pitches.
"I was a lot better at hitting outside pitching this year . . . sitting back and waiting for it," he said.
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The Cyclones' 30-2 regular-season record this year was the best in school history, only to be marred somewhat by a 10-6, first-round district loss to Denison-Schleswig. The Monarchs, who eventually reached the state semifinals, lost two hard-fought battles to HCHS in the regular season, but did not seem to face the true Cyclone team in district play.
HCHS entered the game ranked No. 1 for several weeks running.
"I think we were probably pressing a little, and maybe just wanted it too much, like (Coach) Daeges said. We just didn't hit like we should, like we can . . . like we had all season," Lefeber said. "We had a bad game at the wrong time."
Coupled with the previous year's controversial ending to the Cyclones' state title game loss, the Denison defeat added a second touch of heartache to otherwise outstanding seasons. Lefeber, however, plans to remember the more positive aspects of his junior and senior campaigns - the 60 wins, playing at state and the overall team balance.
"There's games where you get disappointed like we did, but that's not what you remember," he said. "Last year was a lot of fun and everyone got along, and then this year it was the same thing. We had a great team and a great bunch of guys, and you looked forward to coming to play.
"We've had some really good players . . . It wasn't a certain guy coming through every time; it was different guys every night, and I think that made us tough to beat."
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The next stop for Lefeber is Buena Vista, where three of Tyler's former teammates - Mark Blum, Brad Blum and Brett Stein - are already part of a Beaver baseball program that tied a school record with 27 wins in 2009.
Lefeber plans to major in either biology or criminal justice.
"I'm really looking forward to playing up there," he said. "I'm looking forward to classes, too, but I talked to (assistant coach Ryan) Dupic in an email about our fall schedule, and that got me pretty excited."
Hoping for some varsity playing time as a freshman, Lefeber plans to approach the baseball season just as he always has - work hard and good things will happen.
"They're a pretty good team, so I'll have to work to earn a spot," he added. "I think I can pitch up there - I know I can - but I just have to earn my spot."
Lefeber's Ledger
Harlan Community senior Tyler Lefeber garnered very few at-bats as a freshman and sophomore, but made up for lost time the last two seasons with a combined 84 runs-batted-in for the Cyclones. As a pitcher, Lefeber finished with a career record of 22-6. He pitched four straight complete-game gems during the 2008 postseason as HCHS placed second at the State Tournament.
Batting Avg. AB R H RBI 2B 3B HR BB SO OBP SLG
2006 (fr.) .167 6 0 1 1 0 0 0 0 2 .167 .167
2007 (so.) .286 7 1 2 1 0 0 0 1 2 .375 .286
2008 (jr.) ..340 106 9 36 40 6 1 3 14 25 .421 .500
2009 (sr.) ..389 95 25 37 44 6 0 7 23 24 .536 .674
Career .355 214 35 76 86 12 1 10 38 53 n/a .561
Pitching ERA W-L Sv. IP H ER BB SO HB O-BA WHIP
2006 (fr.) 2.10 1-1 1 16.7 19 5 8 14 4 .275 1.62
2007 (so.) 4.50 6-3 1 42.0 45 27 16 31 9 .260 1.45
2008 (jr.) 1.38 10-2 0 71.0 59 14 16 60 4 .233 1.06
2009 (sr.) 3.27 5-0 0 40.7 43 19 14 35 2 .257 1.40
Career 2.67 22-6 2 170.3 166 65 54 140 19 n/a 1.29
All-Area Baseball Players of the Year
2009 Tyler Lefeber, HCHS
2008 Cody Petersen, HCHS
2007 Brad Blum, HCHS
2006 Mark Blum, HCHS
2005 Mark Blum, HCHS
2004 Heath Stein, HCHS
2003 Heath Stein, HCHS
2002 Zach Daeges, HCHS
2001 Zach Daeges, HCHS
2000 Matt Daeges, HCHS
1999 Matt Daeges, HCHS
1998 Matt Daeges, HCHS
1997 Sam Wageman, HCHS and Jeff Bruck, HCHS
1996 Danny Schiltz, HCHS
1995 Billy Albertsen, HCHS
1994 Ryan Kastens, HCHS
1993 Adam Andersen, EH-K
1992 Aaron Poldberg, EH-K
1991 Eric O'Neil, Tri-Center
1990 Troy Schulte, HCHS
1989 Duane Brus, HCHS
1988 Troy Petersen, EH-K
1987 Scott Krumwiede, Tri-Center
1986 Brian Fleming, Tri-Center
1985 Lenny Gubbels, AvoHa
1984 Todd Koos, HCHS
