Gym rats come in all shapes and sizes.
Usually the student-athletes you find toiling away long after their teammates have went home are a step slower or a few inches shorter than the standouts that grab all the headlines. Those stalwarts likely attracted their share of stars and are on the watch lists of most local colleges, and maybe even some of the national powerhouses.
Heath Ford, Drew Riley, and Caleb Roberson weren’t that lucky. None of the Southeastern Conference wish-list schools came calling, but that didn’t stop the Oak Hill Academy multi-sport standouts from working. It also didn’t prevent Oak Hill Academy baseball coach Mitch Bohon from calling and networking in an attempt to find the Raiders a place to play in 2016.
The extra effort paid off last month when Ford and Riley signed scholarships to play baseball at Coahoma Community College and Roberson signed to play football at Mississippi College.
“I think it just shows you you can find diamonds late,” Bohon said. “They just fell through the cracks of the system in recruiting, but I think they found the perfect fit and the perfect school for them. I think they are going to blossom into something special. I think it is a blessing it happened late rather than early.”
Last month, all three had a chance to play together one last time in the Mississippi Association of Independent Schools Class A-AA All-Star Game at Smith Wills Stadium in Jackson. Hebron Christian’s Channing Tapley and Payton Griffin also participated in the annual event, which features some of the top seniors in all four MAIS classifications. Ford and Tapley were part of the Red team, which beat the Blue team 12-7. Ford was 1-for-4 with a run scored, while Tapley was 1-for-3 with a run scored and two RBIs. Riley was 0-for-3, Roberson was 0-for-2, and Griffin was 0-for-3 with an RBI.
Riley also allowed two hits and a run in two innings. He walked two and didn’t strike out a batter. Tapley earned the victory, allowing one hit in two innings. He walked one and struck out four.
Ford said it was fun to get a victory against his teammates so he could earn “bragging rights” over them. A two-sport All-Star (football) like Roberson, Ford said he traveled to Jackson with his longtime teammates, so he didn’t want to listen to them talk about a victory on the way home.
The All-Star game was the last chance for all three to showcase their skills. For Ford, it was the culmination of a prep career that he hoped would pay off in an college opportunity. For the longest time, though, he didn’t receive a lot of interest from college coaches and was resigned to the fact that he might have to concentrate on school. The offer from Coahoma C.C. means he will continue to get to do something he has loved for a long time.
“As a kid growing up, it is everybody’s goal to be able to move on and play college ball,” Ford said. “To be able to do it with a teammate or two is something everyone wants to do. It is a big achievement in my life. It is a big honor.”
Ford said he and Riley received their opportunities after Oak Hill Academy’s baseball season ended with a loss to Canton Academy in the playoffs. He said he likely would have went to Ole Miss if he didn’t receive an offer to play baseball.
Riley wasn’t sure which school he would have selected if Coahoma C.C. didn’t come calling. Now, though, Riley has a friend to keep up late at night and someone to pester about his schoolwork. Ford laughed and said it will be “exciting” to room with Riley and to take the next step in their careers together.
Riley said he received a call from Coahoma C.C. at the same time as Ford. He said he didn’t think an opportunity to play in college was going to come even after going to plenty of showcases in the last few years.
“I am really excited to go down there,” Riley said. “I thought about playing football in college in my 10th-grade year, but I thought I probably would be a punching bag for everybody else because I am not as big as them. … I chose baseball because I am more comfortable with that.”
Roberson, who was a standout on the offensive line for the Raiders, said he received interest from numerous junior colleges in the state of Mississippi last year. He said he was still considering his options when he received a call from Mississippi College and visited the campus. He said he plans on majoring in nursing, so it was a natural fit to take the offer from Mississippi College midway through the baseball season.
“I had been thinking about football because I wanted to play no matter where I got an offer from, but it was kind of shocking,” Roberson said. “I knew I would get offers late because we are at such a small school and we had a new coach (Chris Craven).”
The problem with being a multi-sport athlete at a small school is you often don’t have time to visit numerous schools. Roberson said he likely would have went to East Mississippi C.C. if he didn’t receive an offer from Mississippi College. He said he also received interest from Belhaven and Millsaps.
“When I was real young, I wanted to go play baseball more,” Roberson said. “When I grew up, I found I was better at football and I liked football more because whenever I get mad I can hit somebody.”
Bohon enjoyed listening to each player talk about their recruitment and their college plans. He has found greater pleasure in seeing each young man mature and build confidence as an athlete. Bohon said confidence will be a key for all three moving forward because they need to continue to be gym rats. After all, when you’re not the biggest or the fastest, you have to do something else to shine. Now that they have their chances, Ford, Riley, and Roberson plan to make it happen.
“All three of them have developed in every aspect of life since I have been here,” said Bohon, who was a standout in baseball at Oak Hill Academy and East Mississippi C.C. “They are a lot more hard working now. You can see that over the years they have actually realized it takes work to get better instead of relying on natural talent.”
Adam Minichino is sports editor of The Dispatch. You can reach him at [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter @ctsportseditor.
Adam Minichino is the former Sports Editor for The Commercial Dispatch.
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