LAKEPORT >> Punt, pass and kick is a popular football competition. In the case of Clear Lake High School’s Jared Strate, his senior year might best be described as shoot, throw and hit.
Strate is a finalist for the Lake County Record-Bee’s Athlete of the Year award, given annually to the top boy and top girl in the county. Finalists must be juniors or seniors who compete in at least two varsity sports and who are in good academic standing at their respective schools. Winners will be honored next month along with Coach of the Year winners in boys’ and girls’ sports.
Though a three-sport athlete — football, basketball and baseball — for the Cardinals, it’s the latter two sports where Strate experienced most of his success during the 2014-15 school year. Although he did catch a handful of passes for the Cardinals during a less-than-memorable football season, he lit up the scoreboard in basketball, averaging a team- and county-best 15.7 points a game as Clear Lake reached the North Coast Section Division V playoffs. He’s still going strong this spring season as a key cog in the Cardinals’ undefeated baseball team. An infielder who can field his position, run and hit with the best of them — his 34 hits are second on the team and in the county — Strate could end up being a part of county history if Clear Lake goes on to win a sectional title and completes the 2015 campaign unbeaten, something no other county baseball team has done before.
Strate earned All-North Central League I first-team honors in basketball this past season, the only Clear Lake player so honored, and he’s likely to end up on the All-League first team in baseball when the league’s coaches meet next week to select the squad.
