KELSEYVILLE — “Little Mikey” certainly did OK for himself.
Mike Duman, that tag-a-long younger brother of another Kelseyville High School multi-sports star, is the Lake County Record-Bee”s male athlete of the year based upon his performances on the field and court during the 2008-09 sports season.
Duman, 18, the son of Laurie and Ronald Duman of Kelseyville, used to go just about everywhere older brother Billy Shaul, a 2002 Kelseyville High graduate, and his friends went while growing up.
“I was always hanging around him and his friends,” Duman said. “They called me ?Little Mikey Shaul” because that was my brother”s last name. We have different dads.”
Billy Shaul, a standout athlete in his own right, was then and remains today a motivating force for Duman, who graduated from Kelseyville High last month.
“All the good things, I learned from him,” Duman said of Billy, who is now a crew chief for a racing team in Sacramento.
“He still calls me almost every day asking me if I”m throwing, running, working out,” Duman said. “He would get mad at me if I didn”t call him right away after games (during the 2008-09 sports season). He wanted to know how we did.
“He always gives me advice, he”s still a source of motivation.”
Duman, an All-League first-team player in football and basketball for the Knights, and the league”s co-MVP in baseball while pitching Kelseyville to a championship on the final day of the regular season, has benefited from an abundance of family support since he was a little tike playing Little League.
“Every game I”m pitching at, they”ll be there,” Duman said of his mom and dad. “My mom goes to everything. She knows all my friends. A lot of my friends call her Mama Duman. I”m pretty sure she”ll probably go out to some of their games (at Kelseyville High) and watch them.”
Headed to Solano College in Fairfield, Duman will be pitching for the Falcons in the coming season.
“He”s been following me around all summer,” Duman said of Solano baseball coach Scott Stover. “I”ve talked to him five or six times and he told me if I work hard in the fall I”ll be pitching for them (next spring).”
Santa Rosa Junior College and other schools were interested as well, but Duman said Solano showed the most interest and he”s happy to be going there.
“My mom was hoping Hawaii would be interested in me so she could fly over on weekends to watch me pitch,” Duman joked. “And she”d do it.”
Right now, Duman is keeping his baseball skills sharp by playing for the Top Speed Baseball summer team, which features a half-dozen Solano College players.
The youngest of four children — in addition to older brother Billy, Mike has two older sisters, Leticia and Lisa — Duman would like to become a physical therapist one day.
“Physical therapists have fixed me up and kept me together,” Duman said. “Without them I wouldn”t have been able to play anything in high school.”
Since breaking an ankle his freshman year while playing basketball during a P.E. class, Duman has battled ankle ailments of one sort or another.
“I”ve rolled them a bunch of times,” he said.
At Kelseyville High, he did well in the classroom as well, taking all the honors classes he could, including English, chemistry and physics. He graduated with a 3.72 GPA.
“I thought about going into engineering, but you need to have a strong math background and I really don”t have that,” Duman said.
While attaining individual honors has never been a problem for the talented Duman, team success eluded him until the final day of his senior year, when he pitched the Knights to a 1-0 victory at Fort Bragg. That win secured a share of the North Central League I North title for Kelseyville and provided the Kelseyville senior with his most memorable sports moment.
“I always wanted to have a championship in high school and I played on teams that could have won one, but we never could quite do it and always did something to mess it up,” Duman said.
So when Duman was on that mound that day back in May at Fort Bragg, there was no way he was coming out of that game.
“No way,” Duman said. “I wasn”t going anywhere.”
Only a day earlier the Knights” title hopes were on life support. But they were revived when cellar-dwelling Willits upset first-place Fort Bragg 8-6.
“I remember Lou (Kelseyville baseball coach Lou Poloni) calling me to tell me the score and I think I hung up on him because I was so excited,” Duman said.
While there was no questioning Duman”s athletic ability, all three of his coaches — Thad Owens in football, Scott Conrad in basketball, and Poloni in baseball — continually challenged him to be the team leader that he never was his junior season.
“When I was playing, especially in baseball, if someone made an error behind me, if something went wrong, I was pretty emotional about it,” Duman said. “Finally I figured it out that me getting emotional doesn”t help me or anyone else. Lou probably did more to help me through that. He told me ?you can”t be a head case. If an error happens, make up for it.”
“At one point early in the season we had a very heated conversation and I told him you have to be the Mike Duman express, you have to carry us there,” Poloni said. “At that point he really became a leader for us. If someone booted a ground ball behind him after that, his reaction was, ?I”ll get you another ground ball to get an out.” His whole outlook changed and he led us to the title. It was a great thing to watch happen.”
“He”s one of the best physical athletes I”ve coached,” Conrad added. “To Mikey”s credit, he really turned the corner in baseball season. I”d like to think I had something to do with it, but Lou did a great job with him.”
“Lou”s always been a coach for me,” Duman said. “When Billy was playing, Lou was there and I got to know him. Lou always knew what capabilities you had and where you needed to improve.”
Duman is spending part of his summer working for a landscape company so that he can earn some extra cash.
“I”m working so I don”t have to hit up my parents all the time for money,” Duman said. “I”ve hit them up enough.”
Duman drives a 1983 Datsun 280 ZX that has 215,000 miles on it … and counting.
“My dad likes Datsuns and he bought it for me back in the eighth grade even though I couldn”t drive it then. He helped me fix it up and he teaches me how to fix it so I can do it myself.”
When he”s not busy with sports, Duman enjoys hanging out with his friends.
“There”s not much to do in Kelseyville, but that”s OK,” Duman said. “I like the small-town atmosphere.”
