By Michael Cruz
Name: Sean Cruz
Age: 20
College: Indian Hills Community College
Village: Yona
High School: Southern Class of 2012
Year: Redshirt Sophomore
The island of Guam received the first collegiate athlete scholarship signee of the recruiting season as former Southern baseball and football player Sean Cruz made his written commitment to play for Ashford University, a member of the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA).
Cruz was born and raised on Guam. He started playing baseball at the age of five. He played in the youth leagues and made the transition to high school baseball to help Southern win a baseball title in 2011 and semifinal finish his senior year. He even played two years for the football team.
Cruz had aspirations of playing college baseball since a young age. With no offers coming out of high school, he played one year in the Guam League and BBL. He also started networking to assist him in finding a baseball opportunity off island. Here is an excerpt from Brad Hewitt’s featured article earlier on GSPN:
To begin his process, Cruz turned to those who had experiences previous aspirations, “Throughout high school I was always interested and driven to go to college and pursue my college education and baseball career. With the assistance of a few former college baseball players, it was able to open my eyes to different opportunities on how to actually get to where I wanted to be. They informed me about different baseball programs all over the U.S. And that widened my view on college selections. Taking the time to learn and gain the necessary information has nothing to do with talent level or performance on the field, and therefore can be done equally by anyone willing to put in the work.”
Sean eventually made contact with Indian Hills Community College. He moved off island to rural Iowa which provided him the opportunity to play and attend college. Cruz is a right handed pitcher and was used out of the bullpen as a reliever or closer. The baseball team finished 38-17 and made the regional 11 postseason tournament during the spring 2014 season. Next, Cruz returned home and helped Guam win baseball gold at the Micronesian Games.
Cruz threw his arm out in September during fall baseball practice. His first injury also occurred during the time Ashford University started showing interest. Cruz eventually decided to have Tommy John surgery recently. Ashford still wanted Cruz to play for them and he was interested. Cruz signed his commitment on January 24, 2015, around the same time of his surgery. He is redshirting this year, rehabbing, and will graduate this May with his Associates Degree. Cruz will have three years of playing eligibility when he enrolls at Ashland in the fall. Sean plans to return to Guam for the summer. His goals include to be the first in his family to attain a bachelor’s degree and play baseball at the next level.
Quotes: Sean Cruz- “I want to express my love and thanks to my parents and family. The mental grind of being away from them is overwhelming. I’ve learned to overcome adversity with the challenges of life. Everything happens for a reason and I hope to come back stronger next season”.
30 for 30 Short on Tommy John
http://espn.go.com/video/clip?id=9518611
(AP/Carlos Osorio)
