The third Nash County baseball player has signed Division one scholarship as Landon Roupp of Faith Christian has inked his name to an offer from UNC Wilmington. He becomes the third player in the class of 2017 to commit to a Major baseball program.
Roupp joins David Harrison from Rocky Mount and Reid Johnston from Rocky Mount Academy as baseball players that know what they will be doing in the fall of 2017. Most notably two of those players are from private schools Roupp and Johnston killing the myth that no player from a private school will ever get noticed at the level they play in high school because they don't play enough quality competition.
Those two players joined travel league teams and like Harrison traveled all over the southeast growing up and all three got noticed. Johnston and Harrison by Elliot Advent from N C State and Roupp by Mark Scalf at UNC-W. The last ten years travel ball has boomed and families are willing to join soccer, basketball, volleyball and baseball and I am sure there are others sports on travel teams that send families on weekend excursions all over the southeastern US. Their is a tremendous cost to families and for these three it has paid off for their college futures.
One of the biggest losers in the rise of travel baseball is American Legion baseball who has lost most of the top prospects to travel ball. Even high school baseball is feeling the effects as many travel teams play during high school season making spring time seven day a week baseball. It brings in question and all three of our signees are pitchers pitching during the week for their high school team and may be pitching an inning or two on weekends. The stress level on a players arm or body is never ceasing. Last season even during the summer both Johnston and Harrison played for Post 58 Legion team but when scheduling conflicts occurred they played travel.
This coming high school season all three should be set to show us their stuff as they prepare to move to the next level and at this point we don't know but hope there may even be a level beyond college if they want it. There is no need for any of our three signees to play travel next summer and just think of the Legion team Rocky Mount could have if all three spend the summer playing legion for Post 58.
The prospects for the Legion is good without the three but with them the summer of 17 could last into August if these three anchor what looks like a good team already. If you remember Post 58 did not have a college player returning from college last season because of no Legion Baseball in 2015. Several senior players from last years team will have eligibility to return to Post 58 next season if they wish
Has anybody noticed this besides me that the best newspaper in Nash County is the Nashville Graphics. Even though it is only a weekly newspaper you can find more information in it than any other. In my opinion the second best paper to find out what is happening here in Nash County is WRAL.COM. Just thinking out loud.
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3 comments:
RMT Telegram loves Tarboro High School. Sad when the sports writers spend more time covering Tarboro than Rocky Mount, Northern Nash, Nash Central, Rocky Mount Academy, etc. or give more coverage to a Tarboro soccer game than a Rocky Mount football game.
Telegram was best when they had Clifton Barnes and his high school stringers working there in the 80's. They covered all high school sports like it should. Especially Rocky Mount and Northern Nash.
The issue the Rocky Mount Telegram has is they have these young reporaters who make so little money. Their commitment to the community is not that strong. They are not going to go out every night and cover high school sports like they did in the 80's. Sad but true.
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