Okemos HS Baseballer Bonemer Named Michigan’s Gatorade POY

Okemos High School baseball star Caleb Bonemer was named as Michigan's Gatorade Player of the Year on Friday morning.

The junior shortstop and pitcher has led the Wolves for the last two seasons.  He is verbally committed to play at Virginia, starting in the fall of 2024.  However, he can't sign with the Cavaliers until this coming November.

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Bonemer is hitting over .500 this season for the 20-4-1 Okemos Wolves.  he's hit 8 home runs with 35 runs batted in and has stolen 15 bases so far.

Okemos will face Everett on Saturday in the Michigan high school baseball district tournament at DeWitt HS.  If Okemos wins, they'll play the DeWitt-Grand Ledge winner for the Division 1 district title later in the day.

With Friday's honor, Bonemer is now eligible to become the Gatorade National Player of the Year.  That award will be announced later on in June.

His head coach at Okemos, Raul Presas, sang his praises to the Lansing State Journal:

"He is deserving of this award simply because of all the time he puts in and this started at a really young age with the number of reps that he's taken.  (It was) taking ground balls, swings in the cage and it's just his love of the game. He's different in a good way and he just loves the game. He lives, eats and breathes baseball as well as his school work. He's deserving of this award simply because all the time he puts into honing his skills in his craft."

Baseball Hall of Famer Derek Jeter is a past honoree as the Michigan Gatorade Player of the Year.  He starred at Kalamazoo Central back in the the early 1990's.

Okemos finished second behind Grand Ledge in the CAAC Blue this season, and were beaten by GLAC champion Olivet earlier this week in the Dean Shippey Capital Diamond Classic earlier this week.