Kyle Schwarber is the leader of the Phillies. Just like he was for his high school show choir.

ATLANTA — Kyle Schwarber was Middletown High School’s star linebacker and slugger, but there he was, dancing and singing across the stage, leaving little doubt about how serious he took the show choir. Purple Pizzazz wore elaborate costumes, traveled out of state for competitions, and practiced every day.

Each competition involving the show choir — an ensemble that combines choral singing and choreographed dance routines — ended with an outstanding performer being named. And after one such competition, this award seemed headed for Schwarber, who was placed front and center for Purple Pizzazz’s routine.

“He was really working it,” said Marsha Minge, the show choir director at the Ohio high school.

» READ MORE: ‘He’s going to fit right in’: Inside the Phillies’ pursuit of Kyle Schwarber

The judges announced the winner from Middletown was “Kyle…” and Minge started to cheer, knowing how hard the star athlete trained to hold his own on stage. But the judges botched the last name, declaring another student the winner in a mishap. Minge told Schwarber that she could correct the judges and get him his award.

Schwarber, like he is with the World Series-dreaming Phillies, was the leader of Purple Pizzazz — from the way he worked during Minge’s eighth-period class to the way he didn’t want to spoil another student’s moment.

“It’s just his personality,” said Austin Downing, who played football and baseball with Schwarber along with dancing with him in Purple Pizzazz. “When he walks into the room, he’s the guy and people gravitate toward him. Everywhere he goes, he’s a leader. The man just knows how to lead.

“You wouldn’t think he could move like that, but the man has some dance moves.”

The Phillies signed Schwarber to a four-year, $79 million contract as a free agent last winter, but it wasn’t just his power bat that made them believe he was worth it. They knew about the reputation he had as a clubhouse leader, using the voice he once belted on stage with Purple Pizzazz to guide teams like the Cubs and Red Sox into October. The Phillies, after four straight late-season fades, thought they could use his presence.

“What he does on the field speaks volumes, speaks for itself, and I think it gives him a little bit of credibility for when he does speak up,” first baseman Rhys Hoskins said. “But just the type of guy that he is, the way he cares about us as individuals, not just as ballplayers. … He made it a point to be the guy that he’s been for us. The voice. The heartbeat.”

Schwarber joined a fairly established clubhouse, and it would have been easy, third baseman Alec Bohm said, for the new player to hide in the corner. But Schwarber said he told himself that he wasn’t going to change who he was.

“He didn’t come in and say, ‘This is my team.’ He’s just being himself,” Bohm said. “That’s a testament to him and where he’s come from. He’s just himself. He’s a leader. He’ll push a guy when he needs to push a guy, but he’ll say the same thing. If you need to get after me, get on me. The ultimate team player.”

Pitching ace Zack Wheeler said the clubhouse this season feels different — “We’re like a brotherhood,” he said — than other teams he’s pitched for. And Schwarber has played a key role.

» READ MORE: Schwarber has always been a winner. His former teammates explain how he does it.

“He brings it off the field, on the field, whenever we need some motivation or somebody to kind of step up and maybe say something in the locker room, whatever it may be, he’s there,” Wheeler said. “On bus rides, he’s there. He’s trying to always get the team together off the field and stuff like that.”

Schwarber has won a World Series and is chasing another, but he still can remember the rush he would feel at a show choir competition. They would travel to another high school — sometimes staying overnight — and hope that they could do enough to reach the finals. If they did, that meant Purple Pizzazz got to perform another song.

“It was a hard thing to do,” Schwarber said of reaching the finals. “Don’t get me wrong, you had good performances and you had bad performances. It was like a little victory. You’re moving onto that next step.”

The team felt like a true representation of high school, as every demographic seemed to be included. Athletes like Schwarber and Downing mixed with the rest as they danced to Michael Jackson tunes and swayed to Christmas carols. The football players used to joke that the show choir could help with their footwork.

Minge said a student from another school once asked a Purple Pizzazz member why they had so many athletes in the show choir. The Middletown student said, “That’s just what we do.”

“It gets you out of your comfort zone,” Schwarber said. “It’s easy to stay in your comfort zone and do things that are comfortable and not easy. That’s challenging. It really is if you think about it. You’re in high school and you have to sing and dance at the same time. And you’re a football player.”

» READ MORE: To victory: Phillies savoring their wins with postgame toasts, led by Kyle Schwarber

“It’s pretty cool because you break that stereotype,” Downing said. “To get out there and not think anything of it, it was pretty cool. It’s not often that you see baseball, basketball, and football players singing and dancing in a show choir.”

Spring training was Bryson Stott’s first time in a big-league clubhouse, and he wasn’t sure how the veterans would feel about the young guys hanging around. But it didn’t take long for those concerns to wash away.

“They were so welcoming,” Stott said. “It’s not cliquey. Like Schwarber might go out to dinner with just me and Nick Maton. It’s never cliquey. The young guys can hang out with the old guys. It’s stuff like that. People just hang out with everyone. He never leaves out the young guys from anything, and it’s been that way since the beginning.”

Schwarber led the National League this season with 46 homers and drove in 94 runs with an OPS that was 30% better than league average. It’s easy, Bohm said, to fool yourself into thinking that this is how it has always been for him. But Schwarber is quick to tell the young players about the path he took.

“He’s been up here, and he’ll tell you that he’s been down here,” Bohm said. “He tells us about times he got sent down, times he was grinding, times he [stunk]. Just for the young guys, he sets the right example of who you want to be when things are going good and who you want to be when things aren’t going good. He’s as steady as they come. That’s something that I, personally, I’ve watched. He’s good at being like, ‘Everything is OK.’”

An introduction to the majors is often challenging, but Stott said Schwarber’s “calming voice to settle everything has just been unbelievable.” It could be the conversations he has with him in the dugout or the way Schwarber walks through the clubhouse after a tough loss, reminding everyone there’s a game tomorrow.

» READ MORE: The legend of Kyle Schwarber’s home run power, from high school and college to the Phillies

“We have a lot of young guys who are coming up and learning themselves as big-league baseball players,” Schwarber said. “You want to set the example for them, and that’s not just yelling and screaming. There’s not much of that. It’s more about being able to talk and relate and share experiences and show love.

“Don’t get me wrong, you can show love in a lot of different ways. That could be a pat on the butt or a ‘Hey, what did you see? We can probably do this better.’ It’s not just me. It’s everyone.”

Schwarber ended his senior year down in front — “a big deal in show choir land,” Minge said — for Purple Pizzazz as the center couple. And his success on stage, much like his baseball career, didn’t come without work.

“If you want to be good, you have to come out of your comfort zone,” Schwarber said. “You want to learn and you want to be better. It’s just like baseball or any other sport. You have to do it every day, and you have to practice. It’s not like you just show up one day and you go out there and perform. No, you practice and put in the work. That was the cool thing for all of us to go out there and learn it together. We all had fun with it.”

Minge often would invite other coaches or directors to Middletown to spend time with Purple Pizzazz. One choir director watched Schwarber perform and wondered why he was partnered with the group’s top dancer. The girl, the guest said, was showing up Schwarber.

“He was furious. That’s how seriously he took it,” Minge said. “He was competitive. He wanted to win. He wanted to be the best. That’s who he is.”

The leader of Purple Pizzazz had his fuel and soon he’d earn an award that he was too humble to rip away from someone else.

“He’s the best leader I’ve been around,” Downing said. “He did a lot of leading, but just doing things the right way.”

» READ MORE: Take it from the stars: Phillies’ Kyle Schwarber is also an All-Star teammate