Jrmi Lindsay is an ASU Cronkite School of Journalism student assigned to cover Arizona College Prep for AZPreps365.com.

Arizona College Preparatory High School is set to debut its first-ever baseball program in schools history since opening its doors in 2012. The ACP (Arizona College Prep) baseball program will be led by former Arizona State University player and now head coach Andrew Pollack. 

For Pollack, it’s a “Dream come true.” Pollack added that he’s loved teaching at ACP as well as being able to start something from the ground up.

Pollack hopes to have the same impact on his players as his former high school coach did for him. 

The expectations for ACP come from Pollack, he’s excited for the students to represent the school in baseball. 

“For the students, they choose to come here, and for the students who have been at ACP for a while and were waiting for a baseball program are finally getting it,” Pollack said.

ACP is a fairly young team, only having two seniors. They look to build from the younger students and hopefully build a strong foundation for the baseball program.

ACP outlined that their toughest opponents for the season will be Valley Christian, Benjamin Franklin, and Gilbert High School. 

“Our region will be competitive,” Pollack said.

Pollack outlined his team's goals as follows: is his team prepared for every game, is his team playing hard every game? To Pollack, that is a successful game for his team.

For the players, being part of the first team to play for ACP means everything to them.

Primary Pitcher Michael Karlin, a junior for ACP, has been at the school for most of his academic life and the ambition to play baseball for ACP grew with every year.

Karlin has played baseball since he was 5 years old. Karlin played club baseball outside of ACP, but his ultimate goal was for him to play for ACP and eventually college level.

“It's finally here and It's so much better than I thought it would be,” said Karlin as year after year the school would push for the baseball program to come but never did. 

“ My goal is to be the best and you can’t really put a number on it,” he said 

“The ultimate goal I have for myself and my team is to live up to those expectations,” Karlin added when talking about his goals for the season.

Xavier Gacusan is another junior for ACP who plays outfielder and his thoughts on being the first team in ACP history said, “It's a little nerve-racking, to be honest.”

“Once the season was announced it became a countdown till the first day,” said Gacusan,excitedly.

When asked about his goals for the season, Gacusan said, “I love stats as much as the next guy, but I feel like what we got to do is give our best performance on the field.”

“We set really high standards here on ourselves in the classroom and on the field, we look to do the best that we can we want to be able to set a prescient of how the next couple of years will go we want to set the foundation for what it will look like in years to come,” said Gacusan. 

In all, ACP will look to go out and play its best as well as being fully prepared to the best of their abilities. ACP will kick off its season at home March 1 against ALA - Ironwood at home.