Colella Takes a New Position--on Sidelines : High school baseball: Notre Dame first baseman decides to sit out the season after citing his athletic grind.

Steve Colella, a senior multisport athlete at Notre Dame High, is searching for the finer things in life.

His journey began this week when he informed Coach Bob Mandeville that he will skip his fourth season of varsity baseball. Colella (6-foot-5, 210 pounds), who batted .342 with three home runs as a first baseman last year, has tired of the athletic grind, which he said prevented him from enjoying other aspects of high school life.

“It all got to be like a job, so I decided not to play,” he said this week.

Colella’s decision did not exactly come out of left field, which softened the blow for Mandeville.

“He kind of prepared me for it by talking to me about it some three months ago,” Mandeville said. “It would have been a pleasure to have Steve, but it’s his decision and I can respect that.

“There are no bitter feelings on my part. He is a tremendous kid and I hope he gets what he wants. We’re certainly going to miss him out there.”

Colella also played quarterback on the football team and center on the basketball team for the past two years.

“Lots of scouts had been talking about his bat,” Mandeville said. “He hit a couple of long balls last year that were pretty impressive.”

Colella, who will celebrate his 18th birthday in 11 days, was a solid player in basketball and football. His inside play helped the basketball team win the Mission League title this season with an 11-1 record (23-5 overall) and advance to the Southern Section III-A Division semifinals, in which the Knights lost to Morningside, 65-54.

The two-year starting center averaged eight points and eight rebounds a game as a senior.

Mandeville granted Colella a week off after the basketball season in hopes that he would reconsider his decision to skip his senior season. But Colella stood firm.

“(Mandeville) was really supportive (of my decision),” Colella said. “He said you gotta do whatever is best for you. You have to be able to have fun with it, or else it isn’t worth it.”

Colella, who completed 122 of 243 passes for 1,598 yards and 12 touchdowns last fall, is considering playing football at the University of Pennsylvania or U. C. Davis. He will take a trip to Pennsylvania on March 23 and also might visit U. C. Davis.

Colella also wants to spend more time on academics. He has a 3.4 grade-point average and has applied to Stanford, Cal, USC and UCLA.

But it is rest and relaxation that interests Colella today.

“I may sound like I take (sports) way too seriously, but it was a hassle playing every day, year-round for 3 1/2 years,” Colella said. “You begin to feel like you’re missing something . . . like life, maybe.”

For the remainder of his senior year, Colella intends to catch up on lost pursuits.

“I’m just going to read a little bit, hang out a little bit . . . just relax mainly,” he said.

In keeping with his game plan, Colella joined a bunch of Notre Dame students relaxing on a sunny, spring-like day Tuesday: He took in a Knights’ baseball game.