When senior catcher James Braxmeier reported to military basic training at 18 years old, he assumed his varsity baseball career was over. After four years of service and six years of not being a varsity athlete, he is now a collegiate-level baseball player.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Braxmeier arrived at IC in August 2024 after finishing his service in July 2024. Because Braxmeier served as a lab technician during his time in the Air Force, he earned about 70 total credits, which started him at junior standing at IC.\u00a0<\/p>\n
David Valesente, head coach of the Ithaca College baseball team, reached out to Braxmeier after a recommendation from the club baseball team\u2019s president in December 2025, halfway through Braxmeier\u2019s senior year, when one of the team\u2019s catchers transferred and others picked up injuries.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Despite holding the role of a bullpen catcher and not being expected to play in any games, the decision was easy for both of them.<\/p>\n
\u201cHonestly, I was kind of hyped,\u201d Braxmeier said. \u201cI just like playing the game, you know what I mean?\u201d<\/p>\n
When Braxmeier was in the military, he had no plans of playing baseball again. During his service, two of his passions were re-ignited: baseball and working with children.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Braxmeier played slow-pitch softball for fun during most of his time in the Air Force, but found a passion when he began coaching a local little league team made up of 8-12 year olds in the small town of Alamogordo, New Mexico while he was stationed at Holloman Air Force Base.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Braxmeier\u2019s career goal has always been to help children with speech impediments. Growing up with a speech impediment himself, he sought out to make speech therapy easier and more enjoyable for children. He is currently pursuing his bachelor\u2019s degree in Speech-Language Pathology and is set to graduate in May.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI had a speech impediment when I was a kid \u2026 I hated going to speech [therapy],\u201d Braxmeier said. \u201cIt was my least favorite thing and I was like, oh s\u2014, what if I went and did it so the kids would like doing it? So I feel like that\u2019s where the love for wanting to work with children and stuff is because I want them to like it as much as me.\u201d<\/p>\n
Coaching a youth baseball team fed right into the path of working with kids. Braxmeier fell in love with teaching kids the game of baseball, not only for passing on his knowledge of the game, but for simply being around them.<\/p>\n
\u201cKids are fun, they\u2019re always excited,\u201d Braxmeier said. \u201cThey want to do things. I feel like that\u2019s my vibe. I never want to stay complacent, and kids are always keeping you on your toes.\u201d<\/p>\n
After coaching 8-12 year olds for a season, Braxmeier moved up to coaching 13-15 year olds. Even though he admits that coaching the younger kids was more enjoyable, his passion for coaching remains in the same roots.<\/p>\n
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\u201cI love coaching baseball to kids because you can make them love the game,\u201d Braxmeier said. \u201cI think that\u2019s the coolest part about working with kids. You can make them fall in love with something.\u201d (Courtesy of James Braxmeier)<\/p>\n
Braxmeier left for basic training Aug. 4, 2020, and packed up his room in July 2024 to come to Ithaca College. Being stationed in New Mexico and the southern region for all of his service added to the difficulty of the adjustment to college life.<\/p>\n
Baseball did not become a regular part of Braxmeier\u2019s life at IC until the summer before his senior year.<\/p>\n
Braxmeier and his brother, who also served in the Air Force and now attends the University of Maryland, made a decision together to sign up for their college\u2019s club baseball teams.<\/p>\n
For Braxmeier, the transition to college life was not smooth, but in a different way than normal.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI was doing well in class, participating, but when it came to the test, I didn\u2019t bomb it, but I think I got a C on it and I was like, \u2018I know what I\u2019m doing, but I bombed it,\u2019\u201d Braxmeier said.<\/p>\n
Besides Braxmeier\u2019s initial struggles, the standards that he and others were held to was another adjustment.<\/p>\n
\u201cI mean, it pisses me off when people show up late to class, [that] still sends me through it,\u201d Braxmeier said. \u201cI feel like it\u2019s work ethic and stuff like that kind of instilled that in me.\u201d<\/p>\n
Work ethic and dedication are parts of Braxmeier\u2019s character that his current varsity teammates are impressed by. Junior catcher Owen Callahan said Braxmeier has been nothing but good for the team\u2019s culture.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s always asking the coaches, \u2018What can I do to help? Can I feed the machine? Throw batting practice? Warm guys up?\u2019\u201d Callahan said. \u201cHe\u2019s just a glue guy, he\u2019s looking to do whatever he can. He\u2019s not looking to step on anybody\u2019s toes. \u2026 He\u2019s just a great presence.\u201d<\/p>\n
Braxmeier said he has loved being around the team and all of his new teammates. Callahan said that love is reciprocated.<\/p>\n
\u201cI guarantee you, if you ask anybody about Jimmy, they all say they love him,\u201d Callahan said. \u201cHe\u2019s a great guy to talk to, super easy going, super low maintenance.\u201d<\/p>\n
Although Braxmeier currently serves the role of bullpen catcher, he had not played the catcher position at the varsity level since his first year of high school, but had filled in at the position for the club baseball team.\u00a0<\/p>\n
This factor did not matter to Valesente when having his first conversation with Braxmeier. Valesente said he thought it was phenomenal when he found out of Braxmeier\u2019s service.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe made a connection right away and he made a good first impression,\u201d Valesente said. \u201cI personally felt that he would fit in well with our guys and our culture and our players.\u201d<\/p>\n
Since joining the team, Braxmeier has not let Valesente regret his decision to take him onto the team.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s extremely respectful,\u201d Valesente said. \u201cHe\u2019s a \u2018yes sir, no sir\u2019 type of communicator. I think a lot of the things that he does are military driven. So I think it\u2019s pretty awesome.\u201d<\/p>\n
Braxmeier plans to go to graduate school, but not before coaching a high school travel baseball team over the summer.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI love coaching baseball to kids because you can make them love the game,\u201d Braxmeier said. \u201cI think that\u2019s the coolest part about working with kids. You can make them fall in love with something.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"When senior catcher James Braxmeier reported to military basic training at 18 years old, he assumed his varsity…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":658666,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2290],"tags":[5,84068,84069,84070,84071],"class_list":{"0":"post-658665","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-baseball","8":"tag-baseball","9":"tag-david-valesente","10":"tag-ithaca-college-baseball","11":"tag-james-braxmeier","12":"tag-owen-callahan"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/658665","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=658665"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/658665\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/658666"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=658665"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=658665"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=658665"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}