Tad Gold is similar to my previous subjects in that he grew up on Cape Cod, but more specifically, he grew up on Martha's Vineyard. The Vineyard is a secluded place, seeing as it is an island, and it is ridiculous to expect college scouts to take the ferry down to the Vineyard. As with a lot of other elite Cape Cod baseball prospects and consequently Massachusetts as well, Gold played hockey, too.
What is so interesting about this begins when Tad Gold left the Vineyard for Division Three Endicott College and began his career at the next level. With no idea of his apparent talents, Tad went off to school and proceeded to bat .429, a remarkable statistic, and win the Division Three Player of the Year Award, a remarkable feat for a New England baseball player and a testament to all of Gold's hard work. His senior season garnered enough positive attention to be drafted by the Baltimore Orioles in the 35th round, the 14th Division Three ballplayer to go in the 2014 draft.
It is quite special when a small community of people rally around their hero, and Tad is lucky enough to have this and the island of Martha's Vineyard.
Friday, April 17, 2015
Friday, April 10, 2015
Will Toffey
Will Toffey is a stud. His list of team and individual accomplishments are astounding. His is a baseball diamond in the rough and the proverbial Northeast Prep School hockey product.
Toffey was born in Barnstable, Massachusetts to a family with bloodlines thick with baseball experience. Jack, Will's father, pitched in the Pittsburgh Pirates orginization, and his older brother, John pitched and played hockey at Umass-Amherst and was drafted by both the NHL and MLB. He went on to play hockey in the East Coast Hockey League for three years.
Toffey is a Cape Cod outlier, as Toffey got a scholarship to Vanderbilt to play for Head Baseball Coach Tim Corbin, a Wolfeboro, New Hampshire native. It takes quite a talent to play at Vanderbilt, as the Southeastern Conference is regarded as the elite of College Baseball, but it takes a special and truly unique type to break the line that is drawn at the Kentucky-Virginia line.
Toffey left Barnstable High School as a junior to attend Salisbury High School. Salisbury, coached by Will's brother John, is a perennial Prep School and New England that has sent over 30 players to the next level over the past nine years. It is a normal occurrence for a high school athlete that goes to a public school to switch in favor of the greater exposure and competition that a prep school can bring, both academically and athletically.
Toffey was born in Barnstable, Massachusetts to a family with bloodlines thick with baseball experience. Jack, Will's father, pitched in the Pittsburgh Pirates orginization, and his older brother, John pitched and played hockey at Umass-Amherst and was drafted by both the NHL and MLB. He went on to play hockey in the East Coast Hockey League for three years.
Toffey is a Cape Cod outlier, as Toffey got a scholarship to Vanderbilt to play for Head Baseball Coach Tim Corbin, a Wolfeboro, New Hampshire native. It takes quite a talent to play at Vanderbilt, as the Southeastern Conference is regarded as the elite of College Baseball, but it takes a special and truly unique type to break the line that is drawn at the Kentucky-Virginia line.
Toffey left Barnstable High School as a junior to attend Salisbury High School. Salisbury, coached by Will's brother John, is a perennial Prep School and New England that has sent over 30 players to the next level over the past nine years. It is a normal occurrence for a high school athlete that goes to a public school to switch in favor of the greater exposure and competition that a prep school can bring, both academically and athletically.
Thursday, March 19, 2015
March 20, 2015: Max Willman
The difference between high school sports and college sports is a major one, as high school student athletes no doubt find out across the nation as they grow up, and it is quite an achievement when someone does bridge the gap between the senior year of high school and the freshman year of college. The sport ceases to become merely an activity, but more of a lifestyle when it comes time for a student athlete to become a college student athlete.
To many, Cape Cod is considered a tourist destination, not an athletics hotbed. The larger towns in Central Massachusetts and Southern Massachusetts can produce more athletes with better potential, but Cape Cod can produce a diamond in the rough, too. It's just that scouts aren't as inclined to make the commute to watch public school athletics on Cape Cod. Kids out here have trouble getting the exposure to scouts and college coaches unless they shell out money to participate on a travel team or in a clinic.
Max Willman, a Barnstable native was recently drafted by the Buffalo Sabers of the National Hockey League. This after four years of hockey at Barnstable High School before a post-graduate year at Williston-Hampton. In fact, Willman almost gave up on his hockey career after his Barnstable ice hockey career didn't leave him any future options on the ice. To push back the sun on his career and to give himself more chances to be seen, the prep year was the only conceivable option.
After considering going to Quinnipiac as a student just more than a year ago, Willman was drafted by the Buffalo Sabers in the fifth round of the 2014 NHL Draft.
To many, Cape Cod is considered a tourist destination, not an athletics hotbed. The larger towns in Central Massachusetts and Southern Massachusetts can produce more athletes with better potential, but Cape Cod can produce a diamond in the rough, too. It's just that scouts aren't as inclined to make the commute to watch public school athletics on Cape Cod. Kids out here have trouble getting the exposure to scouts and college coaches unless they shell out money to participate on a travel team or in a clinic.
Max Willman, a Barnstable native was recently drafted by the Buffalo Sabers of the National Hockey League. This after four years of hockey at Barnstable High School before a post-graduate year at Williston-Hampton. In fact, Willman almost gave up on his hockey career after his Barnstable ice hockey career didn't leave him any future options on the ice. To push back the sun on his career and to give himself more chances to be seen, the prep year was the only conceivable option.
After considering going to Quinnipiac as a student just more than a year ago, Willman was drafted by the Buffalo Sabers in the fifth round of the 2014 NHL Draft.
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