Throughout the spring semester, we are honoring our senior student-athletes with a "Senior Salute" series. Today's featured senior is Colin Springer, a statistical and data sciences major from San Diego, California. Springer is a member of the baseball team.
Q: Why did you choose to attend The College of Wooster?
A: The opportunity to continue my baseball career was certainly a huge factor. Getting to do so while pursuing a degree in the specific major I wanted made Wooster the perfect place. I also came to visit during my senior year of high school and met the baseball coaching staff and members of the team which solidified my decision.
Q: What does it mean to you to be a Fighting Scot student-athlete?
A: It means everything. Getting to go out on the field and compete at a high level while representing the Fighting Scots has been a dream come true.
Q: What are some of your favorite memories as a student at The College of Wooster?
A: First and foremost, hallways are an absolute blast. Hallways are a seasonal baseball tradition, not the walkways inside academic halls. As a student, I've been able to go on some fun field trips in the greater Wayne County area to observe and study wildlife and other biology related topics for my biology minor.
Q: What's the best part about being a student-athlete at The College of Wooster?
A: The amazing coaches, athletic training staff, fellow student-athletes, and my teammates have made these four – three and a half, thanks, COVID – years as great as they could possibly be.
Q: What else were you involved with on campus besides your sport?
A: While on campus, I helped run our fall high school baseball camps at Art Murray Field. Youth from all over the country came to learn and show their skills to our coaches.
Q: Which College of Wooster faculty or staff member has made the greatest impact on you and why?
A: I was originally a biology major. However, after taking introductory computer science and data science classes, I knew that was what I wanted to pursue a degree in. I sat down with Dr. Nathan Sommer to discuss the possibility of switching majors and we created a plan that allowed me to complete all required courses and graduate within four years. Without his help I wouldn't be where I'm at today.
Q: Which other people or resources impacted your Wooster experience in a positive way and how did these people/resources set you up to be successful at Wooster?
A: Doc (head coach Barry Craddock) and Coach (Matthew) Johnson have been my biggest supporters on the field and in the classroom. While we spend countless hours in the cage and on the field, the stressed importance of self-discipline with our coursework while balancing practices, lifts, and everything else has increased my organizational and time-management skills greatly.
Q: Tell us a bit about your Independent Study project?
A: For my I.S., I aimed to predict future win totals for Major League Baseball teams to aid in preseason roster building. I first looked at historical correlations between wins and runs scored as well as losses and runs allowed in a season. I used hitting sabermetrics (wOBA, OPS, etc.) to predict runs scored and pitching sabermetrics (WHIP, FIP, BB%, etc.) to predict runs allowed for a future season. Using the historical correlation from earlier, I used my predicted runs allowed and scored to return my future season win total.
Q: Tell us a bit about something cool you did as a student at The College of Wooster?
A: During the summer of 2021 I interned at Prolucent Health, a healthcare company based out of Dallas, Texas. I was a backend software developer and spent the summer working remotely. I really enjoyed applying all the concepts I learned over three full years at Wooster, as well as gaining useful practical knowledge of the job and industry.
Q: Reflecting back on your time at Wooster, what is one piece of advice you would give your first-year (freshman) self?
A: Don't sleep on the Lowry chicken parm.
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