Laurel High baseball coach Don Cleveland thinks he knows what 2015 senior graduate Tyler Carmen will do after he finishes his career at Division III Methodist University in North Carolina.
"His baseball I.Q. is right there with me," Cleveland explained. "I can ask him questions and know I can get the right answer. He is a future coach."
Carmen, the 2015 Laurel Leader male Athlete of the Year, captained both the baseball and swimming teams as a senior.
He worked as the ace of the Spartans' pitching staff for the fourth consecutive season, led the team in batting average and posted top-10 finishes in the county and regional swimming championships in two butterfly events.
Cleveland called Carmen the best pitcher in Prince George's County. He went 8-3 as a senior, striking out 126 batters and walking only seven batters in 62 innings while yielding 42 hits and fashioning a 1.50 ERA.
Carmen finished his career with 408 strikeouts, a state record. Franklin High's Larry Meekins set the old record in 1977 for strikeouts (385) in a career.
Carmen threw two five-inning no hitters in routs of Parkdale and High Point for the 10-6 Spartans this season.
The 6-foot, 240-pound right-handed Carmen has a quality four-pitch repertoire, which includes a four-seam fastball, two-seam fastball (also called a cutter), a curveball and a change-up.
"I don't think anybody in the county had four pitches other than him," Cleveland said. "He had the repertoire when he was a sophomore. That's very impressive. I started coaching the team when he was a sophomore and it was shocking to see someone so young have so much to offer."
Carmen's control impressed Cleveland more than anything.
"He had seven walks the entire season," Cleveland said. "It's just unheard for a high school pitcher to have that good a command."
Carmen said he focused sharply on his control in high school.
He walked 18 as a junior, fanned 138 batters in 63 innings and posted a 1.89 ERA.
"It's something I have always worked on," Carmen said. "I wasn't always the hardest thrower. I had decent velocity. To be good, I had to throw it when I wanted, where I wanted. It was pretty much the key to my success."
Carmen's calmness and demeanor were also strengths.
"He is so calm," Cleveland said. "The few base runners he allowed didn't faze him. If he gets down in the count, it just doesn't faze him. He is confident he can come back."
This spring, Carmen led Laurel in batting average (.558) and doubles (10) and ranked second in RBIs (19) as the team's cleanup hitter. He also had two triples.
"Teams pitched around him," said Cleveland, noting opponents intentionally walked him 10 times. "He had power to the deepest part of the field. It kind of hindered his ability to hit the ball out of the park. If he would have been a kid who pulled the ball, he probably would have had 10 home runs."
In swimming, Carmen was on the varsity for four years. He used the sport to help his baseball career.
"Pitching is really about the legs," Carmen said. "In swimming, you have to have great leg strength. It helped me with my flexibility to pitch deeper into games and with every aspect of baseball. I did swimming for conditioning, but then I got to love it and the competition of it."
Carmen developed into a solid swimmer and his senior year was his best.
He placed seventh in the county and 10th in the region in the 200-yard freestyle and sixth in the county and ninth in the region in the 500 free.
Carmen received the team's Coaches Award as both a junior and senior.
It's given for outstanding display of leadership and dedication.
"He is a kid that I am going to miss," said Laurel's John Venit, who has coached swimming at the school for 30 years. "He is one of my all-time favorite athletes. He never missed a meet or a practice. He gave it everything he could in every practice and every meet. He was a true leader."