Which is just fine with him, says the Coldbrook resident, whose goal for several years now has been to eventually play professional baseball.
Lonar is a Grade 11 student at Central Kings. He has been playing baseball since the age of five, starting in a rookie league in Kentville.
He played minor baseball in Kentville until age 13, when he was picked up by a peewee team from Bridgewater to compete at the Atlantic Nationals championship.
While at that tournament, he says, he was seen and approached by a representative from Baseball Canada.
“He said he liked me as a pitcher, and that I might have a future,” Lonar recalls.
Playing up a level
Since then, Lonar has played “at least a division, and sometimes two” above his age group. At 15, he “pitched a couple of times” for the Kentville senior Wildcats, and did so again last season at age 16.
He has been part of provincial elite teams since he was 13 years old.
“I played two years on the U-15 provincial team,” he says, and 2015 will be his third year with the Nova Scotia Youth Selects U-17 provincial team.
In 2013, as a 15-year-old, he represented Nova Scotia at the Canada Games in Quebec, when the Youth Selects doubled as the Canada Games team for the year.
Last August, after the U-17 nationals, he was picked up by the Tri-County juniors to accompany them to the junior nationals. He pitched two games and was selected the top-left-handed pitcher of the tournament.
Lonar says his plan for this summer is to once again pitch for the Youth Selects, up to and including the U-17 nationals in early August.
“After that, I’ll be able to pitch for the senior Wildcats if they want me to,” he adds.
The big leagues
In 2013, Lonar first attended Tournament 12 (T-12), a national identification camp and tournament sponsored by the Toronto Blue Jays at Rogers Centre in Toronto.
That year, the first for T-12, he played for Team Atlantic, made up of players from the four Atlantic provinces. The team won the tournament championship. He also took part in T-12 last summer, and hopes to attend again this year.
The past two years, T-12 has been held on a weekend the Blue Jays are out of town. “This year, they’re at home, and the night the tournament ends, Sept. 18, we’ll get to see them play Boston at Rogers Centre,” says Lonar.
Lonar has generated some interest from the Blue Jays the past two years.
“I’d like to think I impressed them,” he said.
He also attended a camp last summer in Dartmouth put on by the Atlanta Braves. “Darren Doucette (a former minor league player who has been player-coach of the Dartmouth Moosehead Dry senior team the past number of years) invited a few players to attend an ID camp,” he said.
He has been invited back to the same camp this year, scheduled for June 18.
“I’m really looking forward to it. It’ll be a highlight of my summer. I’ll have to work around my exams to go, but hopefully something can be worked out,” he said.
“My main goal is to play major league baseball, if I’m drafted,” he said. Failing that, he’d like to “to play university baseball somewhere in the U.S. on a scholarship.”
Passion for baseball
Lomar has “always had fun” playing baseball.
“I find it better to play up a division. I find it helps with your maturity,” he adds.
Lonar, a lefty pitcher – “I do everything right-handed but write and throw” – said he has had great guidance from former senior Wildcat pitchers Corey Kent and Kevin Daurie, who also served as his pitching coach on the 2013 Canada Games team.
“Both Corey and Ian Mosher have worked a lot with me the last couple of years,” he said.
Kent, who is now coaching a high school team in his native California, “has invited me down there (later this spring) to showcase for a few coaches.”
Lonar has already been contacted by colleges and baseball academies on both sides of the border, some of whom appear quite serious in their interest.
“A guy from Alberta told me I had a real good arm, and to take good care of it,” he said. “(He) took down all my contact information, and made sure it was right.”
Lonar is aware he needs to be 18 to be drafted.
“That’s next year,” Lonar said.
One college first contacted him in Grade 9, he says, and he has had contact from four universities in the U.S. and one in Calgary.
“Some of them think I’m older than I am,” he says.
Lonar has been dealing with all the attention and sifting through all the offers, so he will be able to make the best decision for his future when the time comes.
“I feel I’m right where I want to be right now, with the right people interested in me and the right people helping me out,” he said.
Which is just fine with him, says the Coldbrook resident, whose goal for several years now has been to eventually play professional baseball.
Lonar is a Grade 11 student at Central Kings. He has been playing baseball since the age of five, starting in a rookie league in Kentville.
He played minor baseball in Kentville until age 13, when he was picked up by a peewee team from Bridgewater to compete at the Atlantic Nationals championship.
While at that tournament, he says, he was seen and approached by a representative from Baseball Canada.
“He said he liked me as a pitcher, and that I might have a future,” Lonar recalls.
Playing up a level
Since then, Lonar has played “at least a division, and sometimes two” above his age group. At 15, he “pitched a couple of times” for the Kentville senior Wildcats, and did so again last season at age 16.
He has been part of provincial elite teams since he was 13 years old.
“I played two years on the U-15 provincial team,” he says, and 2015 will be his third year with the Nova Scotia Youth Selects U-17 provincial team.
In 2013, as a 15-year-old, he represented Nova Scotia at the Canada Games in Quebec, when the Youth Selects doubled as the Canada Games team for the year.
Last August, after the U-17 nationals, he was picked up by the Tri-County juniors to accompany them to the junior nationals. He pitched two games and was selected the top-left-handed pitcher of the tournament.
Lonar says his plan for this summer is to once again pitch for the Youth Selects, up to and including the U-17 nationals in early August.
“After that, I’ll be able to pitch for the senior Wildcats if they want me to,” he adds.
The big leagues
In 2013, Lonar first attended Tournament 12 (T-12), a national identification camp and tournament sponsored by the Toronto Blue Jays at Rogers Centre in Toronto.
That year, the first for T-12, he played for Team Atlantic, made up of players from the four Atlantic provinces. The team won the tournament championship. He also took part in T-12 last summer, and hopes to attend again this year.
The past two years, T-12 has been held on a weekend the Blue Jays are out of town. “This year, they’re at home, and the night the tournament ends, Sept. 18, we’ll get to see them play Boston at Rogers Centre,” says Lonar.
Lonar has generated some interest from the Blue Jays the past two years.
“I’d like to think I impressed them,” he said.
He also attended a camp last summer in Dartmouth put on by the Atlanta Braves. “Darren Doucette (a former minor league player who has been player-coach of the Dartmouth Moosehead Dry senior team the past number of years) invited a few players to attend an ID camp,” he said.
He has been invited back to the same camp this year, scheduled for June 18.
“I’m really looking forward to it. It’ll be a highlight of my summer. I’ll have to work around my exams to go, but hopefully something can be worked out,” he said.
“My main goal is to play major league baseball, if I’m drafted,” he said. Failing that, he’d like to “to play university baseball somewhere in the U.S. on a scholarship.”
Passion for baseball
Lomar has “always had fun” playing baseball.
“I find it better to play up a division. I find it helps with your maturity,” he adds.
Lonar, a lefty pitcher – “I do everything right-handed but write and throw” – said he has had great guidance from former senior Wildcat pitchers Corey Kent and Kevin Daurie, who also served as his pitching coach on the 2013 Canada Games team.
“Both Corey and Ian Mosher have worked a lot with me the last couple of years,” he said.
Kent, who is now coaching a high school team in his native California, “has invited me down there (later this spring) to showcase for a few coaches.”
Lonar has already been contacted by colleges and baseball academies on both sides of the border, some of whom appear quite serious in their interest.
“A guy from Alberta told me I had a real good arm, and to take good care of it,” he said. “(He) took down all my contact information, and made sure it was right.”
Lonar is aware he needs to be 18 to be drafted.
“That’s next year,” Lonar said.
One college first contacted him in Grade 9, he says, and he has had contact from four universities in the U.S. and one in Calgary.
“Some of them think I’m older than I am,” he says.
Lonar has been dealing with all the attention and sifting through all the offers, so he will be able to make the best decision for his future when the time comes.
“I feel I’m right where I want to be right now, with the right people interested in me and the right people helping me out,” he said.
