Everyone watched the weather nervously, wondering if our annual HBCU Showcase would happen. Although the Knothole Team worked through contingencies and strategized various scenarios, with the predicted impact of Tropical Storm Debby, the question remained: Would players, parents, and coaches still come? Well, the HBCU 72 Showcase was a success despite the storm! In true Knothole spirit, these young men (and their parents) were simply unstoppable!
The HBCU 72 Showcase provided a unique platform for players to demonstrate their skills. Over two days, 75 players from the DC area to South Carolina seized this opportunity, impressing 17 collegiate coaches with their talent and dedication at The Stick!
The icing on the cake was the coaches’ panel—a lunch-and-learn-style life skills and college prep discussion about life as a student-athlete. Topics included summaries of the philosophy, culture, and goals of each represented school’s baseball program; how players can put themselves in the best possible position for recruitment; what academic supports and balances their schools offer for student-athletes; how players can become leaders on the team and cultivate leadership skills; how players can pay for college with and without athletic scholarships; what a typical day and regimen are for baseball players; and, how each program prepares student-athletes for careers and life after college.
We want to thank our sponsors for understanding the value of exposing youth to baseball and connecting them to opportunities for college and life:
Pastors Tom and Tracey Chidester and Harvest Church, we appreciate you serving our players and their parents a delicious barbecue lunch with all the “fixins!”
And what about those coaches? A huge shout-out goes to the coaches who represented the following schools: Cleveland Community College, Columbia State Community College, Concord University, Limestone University, Livingstone College, Mars Hill University, Morehouse College, Morris College, North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University, Norfolk State University, Presbyterian College, Queens University of Charlotte, Rust College, Southern University at New Orleans, Vorhees University, and Winthrop University. We are grateful to you for being a part of this monumental experience!
If you want to be part of a winning team that puts youth in a scoring position in baseball and life, we invite you to get involved by volunteering, donating, and sharing all the good stuff happening at Knothole!
