Catching Up With Miles Prusek '24

6/13/2025

Miles Prusek plays baseball not so much for the rewards but for the challenges.

To the 2024 Collegiate graduate, you see, facing those challenges, both physical and mental, and working diligently to manage them, is the ultimate reward, albeit an intrinsic one.

Of course, the tangible rewards are nice as well.

Prusek, whose journey began in the Tuckahoe Little League when he was six years old, earned All-Prep League and honorable mention All-Metro honors as a second baseman his senior year.

As a freshman at Division III Haverford College, he secured a starting spot at third base for the Fords’ opener with Arcadia, shared the position with Matt Dahl through the non-league schedule before assuming the role full time, and helped his team produce a 24-16 record, a third place finish in the Centennial Conference, and a berth in the league championship game.

In 105 plate appearances, Prusek, who’s 5-10, 180, hit .276 with 19 runs batted in, 25 runs, four stolen bases, and two home runs.

One morning recently, shortly before he left for Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, to compete for the Windy Hill Whales in the Beach Collegiate Baseball League, he spoke about his affinity for the sport and his maturation as a player.

What made you gravitate toward baseball as your sport of choice?

I think it’s the failure in the sport. It’s such a difficult sport to be consistently good at. Every day, I have an opportunity to get better. It’s constant growth, constantly finding areas in your game where you’re lacking. I didn’t run away from that. That’s exciting for me.

That might deter a lot of people. What kept you moving forward?

Just playing with my coaches and teammates has made the successes in a game as hard as baseball really rewarding. I’ve known [Collegiate] Coach [Andrew] Slater since I was little doing sandlot camps. He’s been a huge part of my growth and development. I’ve played for Chris McKnight, my club coach, since I was 10. Having two coaches who were such staples in my baseball career has been a blessing. They’ve kept it a game and kept it fun.

Has practice ever become a grind?

I always embraced the practice aspect of baseball. It’s always been something I looked forward to and was excited about. Absolutely, it was a grind, but it was never something I didn’t like doing.

What drives you?

Baseball has been an outlet for me to focus my competitiveness. It’s been a constant in my life. It’s always been something where I could go to the facility and hit or take ground balls. You never reach a place where you think, Ah, I’m good enough. There’s always something you can do to improve.

When did you determine that you wanted to play in college?

That was a goal of mine coming into high school. It was something I wanted to continue. I was always undersized, maybe 5-8, a buck-40 in high school, and that might be generous, so I didn’t get on the recruiting radar until later in my high career. My junior summer, I did the whole travel ball circuit. I did some showcases and picked up interest from some DIII schools. At the start of my senior year, I committed to Haverford. They had expressed interest and had reached out to me.

What made Haverford the place?

The culture in the program and around the school. Sitting down with the coach, Dave Beccaria, really just drew me in to play for somebody who cared and was passionate about having a good team and also fostering good people. You have a lot of self-agency in our program. How hard you work will be rewarded. I was drawn to that. I’ve always enjoyed putting in the work. Going somewhere where that was seen and recognized was important to me.

What was your first year like?

When I got to campus, I had a week to settle in. Then, we went right into fall ball. We would scrimmage every day, just doing live at-bats on the field for about a month and a half. The NCAA only gives you a certain number of practice hours for DIII. Then it’s small-group hitting, small-group defense, lifting groups, the whole deal throughout the winter. Then, we start the season in February.

Speak about the move from second to third base.

They’re completely different. At second base, you have basically all the time in the world once you catch the ball. At third, there’s less time, and the range of plays you can make is a little more than at second base. I didn’t make the switch until after winter break, so it was kind of just learning on the fly. We have good coaches. I trusted what they said and trusted my ability to make plays.

So even though the position was new, you applied the same mindset you always had?

Absolutely. From the moment they told me they wanted me to play third base, I looked at it as an opportunity to impact the team and help the team win games, so I embraced it.

Were there ups and downs during the season, or do you consider that aspect part of the game?

You always want to stay level, but there’re absolutely ups and downs. At the start of the year, I wasn’t hitting great. It was frustrating. You play a few big games, then don’t play a couple of games, but you have to keep a level head and cheer on your teammates and do anything you can to help the team win.

How did you manage the speed of the college game?

There was a slight uptick in the speed of the game. Guys are more physical. We’d seen pitchers at Collegiate as good or better than anybody we saw [at Haverford], but the baseline and talent level rises, so you have to adjust too.

Thoughts on your rookie season?

I’m proud of the season I had just being able to impact games as a freshman. My goal was trying to help the team win in any way I could and being able to do that on the field and starting games was really cool. I’m just excited to keep working with these guys I really had a blast with and try to win a conference championship.

~Weldon Bradshaw

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