EDWARDSVILLE – Being a multiple-sport athlete in high school can be quite an accomplishment; in fact, many coaches today encourage athletes to play more than one sport at the high school level.
Being a multiple-sport athlete at the collegiate level provides its own set of challenges.
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Edwardsville's Isaac Garrett is going to be such an athlete at the collegiate level, having recently signed with Blackburn College in Carlinville to play both baseball and golf. The NCAA Division III school plays golf both in the fall and spring, while baseball is played in the spring season. Garrett will be a pitcher for the Beavers in baseball.
Blackburn is a member of the St. Louis Intercollegiate Athletic Conference, which includes schools such as Fontbonne University in Clayton, Greenville College, MacMurray College in Jacksonville and Webster University in Webster Groves.
“It was a very big deal” to be able to play both sports, Garrett said. “It was basically the main reason why I went to (Blackburn) because I was able to play baseball and golf; it helps being a pitcher, which enabled me to play baseball in the springtime and also play golf.
“I looked at the University of Illinois-Springfield for a little bit, but Blackburn was the one main school I was looking at.”
While baseball and golf are two very different types of sports, aspects of one sport can also apply to the other. “The mental game in golf – having to have a strong mental game – that also helps to be more prepared under pressure in baseball,” Garrett said.
Garrett's contributions to this year's Tiger team have been a reason for the team's success. In his first 12 appearances on the mound and 32.2 innings pitched, Garrett has a 5-3 record with a save and a 2.14 earned-run average with 13 strikeouts.
“I've been very happy,” this season, Garrett said. “The team's been doing well and it's always fun having a good team. I felt I was able to do a lot more this year having different pitches than last year; I feel I've been able to hit my spots a lot better than I was last year.
“It's very nice (having Mike Waldo as a pitching coach) and it's amazing to have him being able to coach you, having so many years under his belt as a coach and being able to help you with so many things.”
As far as golf went, “I felt like I did all right,” Garrett said. “I definitely had room for improvement during the season, but I felt like I did pretty well.”
Tiger coach Tim Funkhouser is excited for Garrett's prospects in both sports. “Pitching is one of those things in college where you can sometimes do a second sport,” Funkhouser said. “I know the demands are high here at our high school, but he's been a great competitor for us; I had the chance to see him pitch a lot more last summer with our summer team and to see him go out and consistently give efforts and he's been very good for us this year on the mound.
“His cutter is a fastball that moves and always displays great poise on the mound; he's going to get a lot of outs at the next level.”
“I think that's a real testament to the type of character and the type of kid” Garrett is, said Tiger golf coach Adam Tyler. “I'm happy for his parents; I'm happy for Blackburn – they're getting a really good player and an even better kid.
“I think that says a lot about his character to play two sports at Edwardsville and to go up and play two sports in college as well; I'm sure he'll do well because of the type of character and type of kid he is.”
Garrett is not only a high-character player on the field or the course, he's also a high-character type of person in the classroom as well. “He's a great student,” Tyler said. “I had him in class; those types of kids you hate to see go because he's a better person than he is a player – you wish you had a team full of them.”
As far as Garrett's golf game goes, Tyler felt he improved his mental game. “Mentally, he's able to manage golf courses, manage his game a little bit better,” Tyler said. “He's been able to minimize the weaknesses in his game and maximize his strengths.
“The next few years, he's going to get more mature, get stronger, hit the ball further, which is going to help him out at the next level, but he's such a high-character guy that his mind-set, his mentality is the best part of his game.”
Garrett will be majoring in computer science at Blackburn and looking at possibly getting into programming in the future.
