Pennsville’s Luke Wood
By Al Muskewitz
Riverview Sports News
Luke Wood has played a lot of sports growing up as the son of a high school coach, but make no mistake, he’s a baseball player. When Pennsville coach Matt Karr pencils Wood in the lineup card as his starting pitcher, he does so with the confidence the junior left-hander gives the Eagles every chance to win the game.
That’s why he gets the ball in the biggest games and against the biggest teams.
Fittingly on Opening Day of the MLB season, a day many consider a national holiday, Wood sat down with the Riverview Sports News to talk about his love for the sport, the influences on his game, his plans for the future and what he does away from the field.
It’s a deeper dive into the life of an athlete in Salem County, the first of what is planned to be a regular feature in the Riverview Sports News this spring and beyond.
As he sat through the interview, Wood had another Opening Day on his mind. He is the scheduled starting pitcher in the Eagles’ 2024 season-opener Tuesday at Clayton.
RIVERVIEW SPORTS NEWS: You’ve played multiple sports growing up, but it seems like you’ve settled on baseball. Why?
LUKE WOOD: I think growing up pitching was always one of my favorite things to do. I’ve always loved throwing. I was born with a great arm, I was very lucky to have that, and as I got older and trying to figure out what I wanted to do with sports and what I wanted to focus on, baseball, getting on the mound and competing and going after hitters, I don’t know if there’s anything like that. That competitiveness that I can feel on the mound, I don’t feel anywhere else.
RSN: Will you go back to other sports going forward? I think one of your goals is to be Pennsville’s all-time leading scorer in boys basketball. (Wood has 1198 career points, third on the school’s all-time boys list behind Zach Manorowitz’ 1679 and Dan Feruck’s 1284).
LW: I didn’t play any football in the high school. I stopped playing when I was really little. Football wasn’t my thing. My dad (Ryan Wood) is a big football coach, won a state championship first year, did really good, but football wasn’t really ever my sport. I was more of a soccer kid growing up. I don’t play anything in the fall, I just take the fall off, although I might play soccer next year. It’s up in the air.
I would love for next year to go out and break Zach Manorowitz’ record for all-time points for the boys. I think that’s one of the coolest feelings you could probably have, especially since then I could come back here for my entire life and see my name up on that banner. I just think it’s a really cool deal.
RSN: What did reaching 1,000 career points in basketball mean to you and how neat will it be to have three members of the family on that 1,000-point banner when Marley does it maybe as early as next winter? (Older sister Ryane Wood finished with 1224 points in 2022. Marley currently has 720).
LW: I think it was one of the coolest feelings just because not a lot of people score 1,000 points and do something my dad never got the chance to do and then to do something my sister did that I got to watch, it was just a really good feeling to go out and score 1,000 points in three years.
Seeing Ryane scoring over 1,000 points was one of the coolest moments of my life and to be able to see my little sister score 1,000 is going to be even cooler, especially since our banner is going to have Wood-Wood-Wood going straight down it.
RSN: What’s your earliest favorite memory in baseball that put you on this path?
LW: Growing up with my dad and seeing his love for the game and just his competitiveness about the game is what put it in me. I didn’t really choose what I wanted to do until I got to high school. I was still playing AAU basketball, still trying to figure out what I wanted to do. I think it’s because my natural talent in baseball is better than it is in basketball, but it’s also the atmosphere of baseball. There’s nothing like going out and throwing a game.
RSN: We’re talking today on what is the day of the MLB Opening Day. As a baseball player does it give you an extra charge when it’s Opening Day. (He will draw the start for Pennsville on the Eagles’ Opening Day Tuesday against Clayton).
LW: It’s always a good feeling when it gets to be baseball season because that means warm weather, you get to go outside a whole bunch, watch some baseball, get to play some baseball.
RSN: Any other memorable baseball experience you care to share that shaped you?
LW: I’ve gotten really lucky. I’ve gotten to go to a good amount of some good events where there have been some good people. I went to the PBR Futures Games the last two years (in Georgia). I got to pitch on the Wake Forest field for a camp, which I thought was really cool; I threw really well there, too. I threw on the Maryland field. I threw against the top 100 team in the state, had a good game.
The Carpenter Cup was one of the coolest things, too, just to get my name selected to be on the team as a sophomore. When they played at Citizens Bank I was down in Alabama for a travel ball tournament, so I didn’t get to go to that. I only ended up going to the first two games.
RSN: You sprained the ankle on your push-off foot during the basketball season. I know you came back from it, but how much did you worry about it impacting your baseball future? Teammate Chase Burchfield hurt his shoulder early in the basketball season and shut it down for baseball. You didn’t have any of those thoughts, did you?
LW: This isn’t the first time I’d hurt my ankle. I hurt it last year during baseball season. I hurt it last year during the summer really bad. I think I’ve gotten over the fear of hurting it again and even worrying about that. Once I hurt it, I made sure I did a lot of rehab on it to strengthen the muscles so it didn’t happen again. It’s not really a problem.
RSN: We came on the scene late last year, but what I learned is that even as a sophomore you get the ball against the better teams/bigger games. How much do you like that role and what do those games do for your energy?
LW: I think a lot of it is just going out and knowing I have to compete not just for myself but for my team. The competitiveness in me wanting to win really bad is why I want the big games, it’s why I throw the big games. I want to go play and throw against the best players so that it gives our team the best chance to win.
RSN: Your dad’s a coach. Probably coached you in a bunch of sports. What’s it like playing for your dad and what’s been his influence on your development and sports path?
LW: My dad has always been very focused on me and my career within any sport. Any time I need to go hit, throw, get shots up or anything, he texts back within five minutes and he’s right there, ready to do it right away. My dad just wants to see me succeed and will literally do anything for me in order to make that happen.
My dad, when he was going into his sophomore year of high school, had a really bad accident with his Achilles and it knocked him out for his sophomore year of basketball. I think he ended up playing his sophomore year of baseball in high-top sneakers. Knowing that happened to my dad and knowing he went out and made a Carpenter Cup team, scored 500 points as a senior, it’s something that makes me want to work harder knowing that he worked through all that adversity to get to where he’s at.
RSN: What do you do to switch gears emotionally and physically going from one spot to the next? Unlike where I came from (Alabama), the state gives you time in between seasons and there’s not much overlap.
LW: I really just get super geared up for baseball. I go out and hit every day, make sure I throw every day, make sure I’m tunnel-visioned focused on just baseball for that month. Not having the whole winter to train like some people do, that month is very crucial and important for me to get better for the season.
RSN: What do you do away from the field, like what do you do for fun on your downtime?
LW: I love doing LEGOs; I’m a LEGO guy. I love Harry Potter LEGOs. I build them and we don’t have anywhere in my house to put them so they just kind of get left around until I figure out what to do with them. There are probably like four in my kitchen right now. There’s a train in there.
I love Harry Potter. I love the movies, I love the books. Every time I go to the LEGO store, Walmart, I just look for the Harry Potter ones.
RSN: Are you working on anything now?
LW: I’m actually midway through building the Taj Mahal.
RSN: OK, let’s wrap it up by talking about the future. I know you’re currently uncommitted to a college baseball program. Where do things stand with your recruiting, summer plans, life plans? What are you looking for in a college program?
LW: Ever since I got to be a freshman I was getting recruiting, but I’ve always just never really wanted to do it; I always felt like it was too early. I’ve always just wanted to wait just so I know where I’m at. Where I’m at now is completely different from where I thought I would be in two years. I don’t want to make a decision and then have that decision in two years not even be worth it because I rushed it.
For me, college has never been about where it is, what the school’s name is, it’s always been about trying to find somewhere where I would want to go, where I would feel at home for the next four years of my life. I’ve really gotten away from the whole recruiting lately, but I’m hoping to pick it back up in the summer when travel ball starts.
After college I would love to go play MLB baseball if I could, if I got the opportunity and ended up being good enough to. If not, I would love to go to law school, be a lawyer like my mom is. I would love to be a prosecutor or something like that. I would love to get into the corporate lawyer business because they make a ton of money.
NEXT UP: Woodstown softball player Tulana Mingin.
Coaches, if there is a player in your program with an interesting background or backstory that should be considered for a “Getting To Know …” feature, send the details in an email to Riverview Sports News at al.muskewitz@gmail.com
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