After playing four years together at SBHS, Karson Klauer, Kolton
Klauer and Breyon Canez have simply furthered their bond while
playing at San Jose State
SAN JOSE
Sitting in the back room of Iguanas, a local taqueria in San Jose that is perhaps best known for keeping the masses of university students alive with cheap eats, Karson Klauer, Kolton Klauer and Breyon Canez sit in near silence.
After being at Blethen Field all day, from 10:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. for a Western Athletic Conference game against New Mexico State, the three Spartans sit in relative quiet with nachos and burritos in hand.
It’s not awkward, mind you. It’s just dinner, and uncomfortable silences need not apply for this tight-knit group.
“So hungry,” says Breyon, a 2006 graduate of San Benito High School and starting first baseman at San Jose State, breaking the initial silence.
The front room of the restaurant, meanwhile, is bustling and loud. It’s Friday night, classes at San Jose State are out for the evening, and for the majority of the student clientele at Iguanas, the night is still young.
“We’re homebodies,” says Karson, a 2006 SBHS graduate and starting second baseman for the Spartans, his face still carrying the exhausting effects of San Jose State’s 9-4 loss earlier in the day.
“We’re so tired. Usually we have two games on Saturday, and those are really long days,” adds Karson, a senior at SJSU who is third on the team with a .281 batting average. “So we don’t want to do anything (on Friday night). We just want to eat, play video games and hang out in our room.”
“And study, of course,” said Kolton, Karson’s younger brother, who is quick to point out the “student” in student-athlete.
Added Breyon, “We’re kind of boring.”
Not a wild man in the bunch, at least not on this Friday night.
But while Kolton’s quip about studying on a Friday night may have been a bit over the top, the three Spartans, three roommates, three friends and three former Balers — yes, all of the above — always seem to be on the same page.
It’s familial, of course — the Klauers’ father, Kraig, and Breyon’s mother, Terri, are siblings, meaning Karson and Kolton are cousins with Breyon. But without going as far as finishing each other’s sentences, the three have developed a unique bond that has spanned pretty much their entire life, from the ball fields at Veterans Memorial Park to the varsity diamond at San Benito High, and now, for one year at least, to Blethen Field in San Jose.
“They’re a tight group,” said SJSU head coach Sam Piraro, noting the threesomes character, judgment and loyalty are assets for all incoming freshmen at San Jose State to emulate.
“And that, to me, is as big a compliment as I can probably give anybody,” Piraro added, “that they’re high-character people.”
While their story has been written before, it’s worth mentioning again: Karson, Kolton and Breyon each played for the San Benito High varsity baseball team in 2006, and helped lead the Balers to a 24-5 overall record and a quarterfinal bid in the Central Coast Section playoffs. Breyon’s little brother Zach Canez was also a member of the varsity team, meaning two sets of brothers and cousins suited up for San Benito that year.
But while it must be somewhat rare for a high school baseball team to be so family oriented, it’s perhaps a whole different ball game when the same thing happens at a Division I college.
“It has to be really rare,” Kolton says.
“For us to go D-I, it was like, ‘OK, we’ve got a shot,'” Karson says. “That was kind of cool.”
But for three of the four to all end up at San Jose State, well, that was completely unforeseen. Karson and Breyon both began their collegiate careers for the Spartans, but Kolton took two years at Hartnell College in Salinas before transferring this year to San Jose State, where he walked on.
Zach Canez, although not on the SJSU roster, isn’t too far from group either. He lives with the other three in a three-bedroom San Jose apartment, and is currently playing left field at San Jose City College.
“My intentions were to develop at a junior college, and then hopefully I’d have a better chance of going to the D-I level,” says Kolton, who batted .318 (42 of 132) during his sophomore campaign in Salinas. “When I got here I was able to perform pretty well.”
Kolton, who said Karson and Breyon’s enrollment at SJSU made his choice that much easier, is currently competing for a spot in right field, whereas Breyon has moved into the starting role at first base, and is batting an even .300 (21 of 70) in the lineup. Karson, meanwhile, has played in all 34 games for the Spartans, started at second base in 32 of them, and boasts a .281 (36 of 128) average.
And by living under the same roof, going to the same school and playing for the same team, the threesome’s bond has only grown at San Jose State, where the game in general isn’t as laid back as it was in high school, where the game in general is played at a whole different level.
“We all have good chemistry on the field still,” Breyon says. “But we probably work harder than we did in high school. We put more time into it. For me and Karson, we played football in the fall, but now it’s strictly baseball, so that’s what we focus on.
“We’ve been roommates the whole time since we got here. And if one wants to go hit, the other goes with them. We work together.”
Karson, Kolton and Breyon sometimes even sit around the dining room table after a rousing game of Mario Kart — “It’s pretty intense,” Karson says — for a discussion of all things baseball.
“They really support each other and when things don’t go good, they’re there for each other,” Piraro said. “I think that’s a beautiful thing.”
Karson is expected to graduate in May, however (he is a three-time scholar-athlete at SJSU), leaving behind only Breyon and Kolton on the Spartans squad.
He plans on disappearing for a few months, he says, and will then try to be a grown-up. Although as of right now, how he’ll feel once baseball is no longer, and there is a void left by playing with family for so many years, remains a mystery.
Like the other three, it’s the only thing he’s ever known.
“That’s the question,” Karson says simply.
