Our last athlete of the week spotlight before the start of the 2021-2022 school year highlights 2021 Olympia High School graduate and Danvers native, Andrew Nichols. Nichols was a member of the varsity baseball and basketball teams and also a member of National Honor Society and Student Bank Board. He was a three-year starter for the varsity baseball team and would have been a four year starter if his junior season wouldn’t have been lost due to the pandemic. This year, he will be attending Illinois State University to study finance. Although Andrew’s athletic career is over, his leadership impact on his younger teammates will be apparent especially in the baseball program for many more years. Nichols, along with former teammate Hayden Stork, have been working with younger generations of Olympia baseball players. They work to help the young athletes improve their game and develop into the future of Oly baseball. 

All great leaders have someone who has impacted their life and shaped their views. For Nichols, that was Olympia High School varsity baseball coach, Mark Finchum. While discussing the impact Finchum had on him, Nichols stated, “He pushed all of us to be the best players as well as the best people that we could be. He taught us things that are so much bigger than baseball.” Some of Nichols’ favorite memories at Olympia were made with his baseball teammates. “The (baseball) postseason run my freshman year and the team dinners and activities have to be my favorite athletic memories,” he said. 

Throughout his time at Olympia, Nichols performed very well athletically and has received awards that show this. He was named all-conference honorable mention for pitching during his sophomore season in a conference with elite pitching. His senior year he was most improved in basketball after not playing his junior season. For baseball this year he was named to the first team all-conference for infield and ended the season with a 1.88 ERA while batting .433 at the plate. Nichols has left his impact on both baseball and basketball at Olympia High School. He reflected on Olympia athletics as a whole, stating, “I had a great time both attending and participating in Olympia athletics and I’m grateful for the lessons I’ve learned.”