Monday, January 23, 2012

The latest two sport star...

It used to be a lot more common....having a guy on the football team also play baseball.  In the era of specialization, it has become far less common.  I grew up watching Paul Miles play football and then play baseball.  BG QB Bob Niemet played both sports.  Of course, there is the famous Cole Magner tenure on the basketball team (along with Keon Newsome)...and that magic day at Anderson against the RedHawks.

There are probably more.  Last week, we heard for the first time about a new one--OL Clay Rolf, who is going to play for the baseball team as well.

Rolf was a big HS star at Eastwood, and according to this story by Kevin Gordon in the Sentinel Tribune, wanted to play baseball at BG.  Coach Clawson said that if he got through his freshman year and was doing well on football and academics, he could play baseball.

It is a burden on the player, especially during spring practice.  Catch this schedule from the Sentinel article...

He conditions and works out with the football team in the morning, attends class from 11 a.m.-2:30 p.m. and then heads to baseball practice until approximately 4:30 p.m.
On the other hand, baseball has limited scholarships, and it gets them a scholarship quality athlete without having it count against them.  And, if managed correctly, I think it can be a non-issue for football, and Clay might be a better player if he can do both.

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