Camp Verde’s baseball team had high expectations heading into the 2020 season. They were a state finalist in 2019 and had a strong core group of returning seniors. With that, the Cowboys had aspirations of possibly winning a state championship. One of those returning seniors was first baseman Wylie Howe. But now that his high school baseball career is over, Howe’s focus is shifting to a goal that is quite literally higher than a state championship.
He plans on attending Cochise College in Douglas and getting his pilot’s license.
First will come his Private Pilot license, which is earned after 10 hours of ground school and 40 hours of flying. After 1,500 hours of flight time, Howe will be able to attain his Commercial Pilot license. He hopes to do that and eventually fly for an airline.
Howe’s interest in flying goes back to childhood.
“When I was 9, a pilot friend of my grandma and grandpa took me flying,” he said. “I’ve liked it ever since.”
As far as baseball memories go, Howe fondly remembers 2019’s deep postseason run. He also remembers trips to a tournament in Laughlin, NV that he and the Cowboys took in both the 2018 and 2019 seasons.
And while the 2020 season was shortened, it did provide him with another great memory when Camp Verde defeated Payson 5-4 on March 4. The Cowboys fell behind 2-0 in that game but took the lead with three runs in the fourth, two more in the fifth and then survived a late Longhorns rally to come away with a 5-4 win.
“The Payson game was fun,” Howe said. “The intensity of it is what I remember most.”
In 2019 — Howe’s junior year and final full season playing baseball for Camp Verde — Howe hit .260/.387.280 while scoring 10 runs and driving in six.
The 2020 season started well for Howe. In only seven games, he had equaled his 2019 RBI total with six. Howe had also scored six runs and hit much better, going .368/.500/.421 at the plate. He had also pitched in one game, going 5.1 innings while allowing only one run, one hit and one walk, striking out seven in a winning effort over Horizon Honors.
It had been a good year for the Cowboys, as well. Camp Verde was 5-1-1 before the season was postponed and ultimately halted.
“I think we would have done better than what everyone thought we were going to do,” Howe said. “We got along and worked together really well.”
With high school now complete, Howe hopes that he and the rest of his senior class are remembered as a group that would always find a way to have fun.
“I want us to be remembered as having fun no matter the situation,” he said. “Whenever there were tests and you were supposed to be quiet, we still had fun. We’d talk to people — even when we weren’t supposed to.”
