College sports programs rarely find recruiting classes like John Calipari gets for Kentucky basketball. It’s the exception rather than the rule.
That’s why in sports like baseball, programs must be able to find talented players on a regular basis. They’ll often connect with areas to recruit talent from on a regular basis. The schools might like the kinds of players there, enjoy working with the coaches, or something, but building a recruiting pipeline helps all programs.
The James Madison University baseball team has done just that with Northern Virginia. Spanky McFarland’s program has truly connected with that area, repeatedly bringing a number of solid player to the Dukes over the years, a big reason the team’s remained competitive.
"It just kind of perpetuates,” said McFarland, who has led the Dukes to two Colonial Athletic Association championships. “Kids seem to recruit the same kind of players [that] they are. They kind of recognize what it takes to be successful at different schools. Coaches are the same way.”
Several Northern Virginia players are on the Dukes’ roster once again this spring as the pipeline continues to work. Everyday starters in the James Madison lineup include redshirt junior shortstop Chad Carroll (Oakton High School), junior catcher Bobby San Martin (Centreville), outfielders Ky Parrott (Herndon) and Michael Sciorra (Chantilly), with redshirt junior Aaron Hoover (Westfield) assuming a role as a starting pitcher on the weekends and sophomore Michael Evans (Marshall) serving as the team’s closer.
Parrott is having a monster season at the plate, hitting .329 with a .412 on-base average and a team-high five home runs and 21 RBI for the Dukes, which fell to 10-14 overall and 0-6 in the CAA after a 3-game sweep at the hands of Charleston this weekend. Carroll is hitting .303 with two homers, 12 RBI and a team-high 12 stolen bases, while San Martin has started 20 of the team’s 24 games and rookie Sciorra has started 19 games.
Hoover is 2-1 after taking the loss to Charleston on Friday and carries a 5.11 ERA with 26 strikeouts in 37 innings of work and Evans has four of the team’s five saves and has struck out 26 batters in 21 innings of work.
Carroll’s younger brother, Ty, and former high school teammate Chris Hanson have also started games for the Dukes, which field a roster that also includes Northern Virginia natives Brett Garner and Mark Gunst (Paul VI Catholic), Colton Harlow (Stonewall Jackson), Adam Sisk (Robinson), Brandon Withers (Osbourn) and Steven Schwartz (Annandale). In all, 14 of the 33 players on the current roster hail from upstate.
“It seems like for years now that we’ve had a lot of Northern Virginia kids go down there and have success,” said Oakton coach Justin Janis. “I think there’s the baseball aspect, and it just happens to be a great school that kids from Northern Virginia like to go to.”
Hoover says he was looking at James Madison early in his process of picking a college.
The school is about one hour, 45 minutes from his home, and Hoover knew about the baseball program through teammates and other coaches he dealt with. He also went to some camps there, starting earlier in high school, and everything came together and ended up with Hoover joining the program.
“It was definitely on my radar pretty early,” said Hoover, who’s majoring in both justice studies and sociology. “I knew a player that also went to Westfield; he came to James Madison. I had a relationship with him and talked with him [and] another player. Word of mouth is huge.”
Hoover has continued helping James Madison sell the program to kids in his area. He coached on a team last summer with the Stars Showcase Program – which he played with while in high school -- and talked with the players on that team about his college squad. Now, many of them have the Dukes on their list of potential schools.
McFarland, who said he will be stepping down this season after 18 years at the helm, added that players from the Northern Virginia area just seem to fit in well with his program. And now that the pipeline is in place, the Dukes hope to keep using it.
“You’re always looking for young players who are up and coming,” he said. “We’re well thought of in the Northern Virginia area. The kids from there may be a little more…prepared than from other parts of the state. It’s a good fit.”
Photo Credit/Shelley Miller
