Going to a junior college may not be the glamorous choice for many high school athletes, but for some, it can be the right one

By Nick Erickson – Eau Claire Express

Patience is a virtue.

It is one of the very first life lessons taught to young children and it is applicable at any point in a person’s time on earth.

For 18-year old kids graduating from high school with aspirations to make something out of their baseball careers, it can be particularly challenging not to jump on the first opportunity given to play beyond high school.

When you scroll up and down the roster of any Northwoods League team, you might be a tad puzzled just where and what exactly some of the players’ schools are.  For example, on the Eau Claire Express roster page, you might have to look up Indian Hills, DMACC or Iowa Central and search Google long and hard for a few minutes before you come up with a concrete idea of the place.

Most of these places are junior colleges, which are two-year schools usually on a small campus with a small student body in a small town.

So why on earth would something seeking to play at the highest level go out of high school to one of these isolate, remote places over the glamour of a four-year institution?  Well, as any Green Bay Packer fan should know with Aaron Rodgers, the patience of going to a junior college first can sometimes pay off in a very, very big way.

Much like the Packer quarterback, Express shortstop Blake Schmit never really received any looks from a Division I program out of Eden Prairie High School in a Twin Cities suburb.

After attending Winona State for a semester, Schmit contacted the coaches at Des Moines Area Community College, a school with one academic building, in hopes of playing there.  Even though the junior college route was one he was hesitant to take, he knew he wanted to hone his baseball skills at a place where he would be able to see the field on a routine basis.

“A lot of high school guys want to go to a four year institutions out of high school and they don’t really know much about the junior college process,” Schmit said.  “I was kind of intimidated knowing that, but I ultimately wanted to play right away.”

Unlike Schmit, Tyler Hermann had Division I looks out of high school. The 2011 graduate of Eau Claire North High School hit an astonishing .585 as a senior and led his Huskies to the ultimate prize in Wisconsin High School baseball, a Division I state championship.  For his efforts, the Wisconsin Baseball Coaches Association named him the Wisconsin High School State Player of the Year just two years ago.

He took a route not many other sports’ Wisconsin State Player of the Years would, winding up at Indian Hills Community College in the sparse area of Ottumwa, Iowa.

For the North graduate, who had looks from schools such as the University of Minnesota, among others, Indian Hills gave him a chance to mature as a ballplayer and a student.

“I’ll be the first to tell you, my ACT score wasn’t the greatest,” Hermann said.  “So I figured junior college was a good fit for me.  If I wanted to get to the next level, junior college was definitely the best route.”

Pitcher Will Kenny grew up in Fort Dodge, Iowa, the same town where Iowa Central Community College is located.  When Kenny was only receiving looks from Division II schools out of high school, he knew his hometown had the junior college option.  And he took it.

“Junior college was the route I really wanted to go because I wanted to play DI ball and have the opportunity to play with the best,” Kenny said. “It gives players the opportunity to develop and really move their game to the next level.”

And when they say opportunity, they mean it.  The National Junior Collegiate Athletic Association (NJCAA) is different from the NCAA.  In the NCAA, there are certain restrictions on how many days and hours per week a team can get together and hold a practice.

Hermann said at the NJCAA level, such rules are not implemented, and it gives players the opportunity to focus strictly on baseball.  Also, based on the geographical locations of junior colleges, which are often found in smaller communities, all three players said there weren’t a lot of distractions getting in the way of what they were there to do.

“The ball was great, I mean, there weren’t any hour limits or anything,” Hermann said.  “And honestly when we weren’t practicing, we were up in the gym working out even more so it was a lot of fun.”

Schmit agreed, saying “A lot of junior colleges are kind of in the middle of nowhere. It was really small campus with only one academic building, a field and our apartments and really not a lot else to do.”

And the academics? Hermann said it is just like any other college, where if you put in time, results will show.

Results have shown for all three players as they have all achieved their goals and dreams of reaching a Division I school.

Hermann signed a letter of intent to play for the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee starting in the fall, and he can’t thank Indian Hills Community College enough for helping him develop as a player and person.

“It helped me become such a more mature and experienced player,” Hermann said.  “It was a big help and I liked it a lot.”

Schmit played at the University of Maryland in 2013 and made big noise in his first season playing for the Terrapins, who happen to play in one of the toughest conferences in all of baseball, the Atlantic Coast Conference.  He started 54 of Maryland’s 55 games and he hit .277 with two home runs and 30 RBIs.  Like Hermann, he credits a lot of his success to his time at junior college.

“I really got mentally tough and they got me really ready to play at the next level,” Schmit said. “After a good year-and-a-half there, I went to Maryland and everything has been going well since.”

After never receiving an offer from them out of high school, Kenny will now suit up for his home state’s Iowa Hawkeyes in the fall.

“They developed me so much and they taught me to just work every day and compete on the mound,” Kenny said.  “I think that’s what ultimately got me to that next level.”

Taking a road less traveled can be a difficult thing to do.  But, as Hermann, Schmit and Kenny, as well as others on the Express team and around the Northwoods League, have shown, a high reward can be lying at the end of that road.  And the process to get there was totally worth it.