Whit Hughes — Baseball Player
After one semester away from the Blue Water Area, SC4 catcher Whit Hughes decided to continue both his athletic and academic careers as a Skipper.
"I committed to a DII school in Ohio, so right out of high school I shipped down south, played one semester there, but nothing was really gelling," Hughes said. "So, I got ahold of coach [Ryan Kottke] and he got me spot on the team."
Hughes graduated from Yale High School in 2018 and says he's found home at SC4.
"I like that it's a smaller school and being from Yale, it's a small town, so this just feels a lot more comfortable for me," he said.
This will be his third season as a Skipper, which is an uncommon thing for a junior college athlete, but as COVID-19 stole what would've been his sophomore season, Hughes says he's grateful for another opportunity to keep playing for a third year.
One thing that the Coronavirus didn't take, however, was Hughes' favorite Skipper baseball memory.
"Fall ball is always fun, but my favorite memory has got to be our trip to Myrtle Beach for spring training," he said. "We went down for a week and played a bunch of games. We even got to play at the Cal Ripken Stadium which was awesome."
While at SC4, he's studying criminal justice with the goal of a degree in law enforcement.
"I'd like to be a conservation officer for the DNR," he said. "I grew up hunting and fishing all the time and I love being outside, so I think that'd be a really good fit."
But as much as he loves the outdoors, Hughes loves baseball more and would love to continue playing the game for a long as possible.
"If the opportunity to keep playing presents itself, of course I'd take it. I'd love to," he said. "That's a goal that every ball player should have, to keep playing for as long as they can."