Autonomy is something high school athletes rarely experience.

Quarterbacks on the gridiron typically don’t have the freedom to call their own plays, and catchers on the baseball diamond don’t have the opportunity to call their own game. There is always exceptions to these sports social norms, but they are few and far between.

Sammamish Totems junior catcher Kenny McCormick is one of those players who is granted unbridled freedom on the baseball field.

McCormick, who has already verbally committed to play baseball for the University of Washington, calls his own game behind the plate.

Sammamish head coach Gary McGregor said he has no problem granting that kind of exquisite freedom to McCormick.

“I don’t call anything — he calls the game,” McGregor said. “This is his third year as the starting catcher for this team. About the only thing we call from the dugout is a pitch-out, but otherwise he has total command of the field.”

McCormick is grateful his head coach trusts him to make the right decisions each time they take the field.

“I feel very thankful that he trusts me enough to do that,” McCormick said. “A lot of coaches call the game for the catcher but he trusts me. I’m glad he does.”

The junior signal caller behind the plate is a huge fan of McGregor’s level-headed approach to the game.

“He is probably one of the coolest guys out there. He is always calm, cool and collected. He doesn’t say much but when he does say something, you know he cares,” McCormick said of McGregor. “He is always trying to help us get better to do what we need to do in order to reach our goals.”

The Totems, who advanced to the Class 2A state tournament in Yakima last season, have struggled in early season action. Through the first six games of the 2016 season the Totems were winless. Three of those losses came by just one run.

“We have a tough league and we were in each game,” McGregor said of the three one-run losses. “We lost some of those games in the bottom of the seventh inning. It is tough but we know we can get better and good things can still happen,” McGregor said.

McCormick began playing catcher as a 5-year-old under the guidance of his dad.

“When I was in elementary school, my dad was coaching our team and we needed a catcher,” he said. “My dad said to me, ‘You’re catching.’ I fell in love with calling the game and being in control. I felt like all eyes were on me and I loved that.”

While calling the game is immensely enjoyable for McCormick, he also gets a thrill out of enticing umpires to call strikes on borderline pitches.

“It is more about being able to present that pitch as a strike to the umpire,” McCormick said. “Once you’re able to do it and do it pretty well, your coaches and teammates just love it and they go crazy.”