FORT MYERS, Fla. – The EvoShield Canes never do anything halfway when it comes to assembling the roster for their top-tier entrant at a Perfect Game national championship tournament. This weekend’s 14th annual PG WWBA Underclass World Championship Is certainly no exception.
The Fredericksburg, Va.-based Canes Baseball organization actually has eight teams entered here at one of PG’s premier national championship underclass events. While all are talented it’s going to be very difficult for anyone in attendance to divert their eyes from the prospect-laden squad that is known simply as the EvoShield Canes (the other teams have extended names like 2018 Prime, 2018 Prospects, North 2017 Prospects, South 2017 Prospects, American, Northeast and Southeast.)
A college coach or recruiter could take a look at the Canes’ roster and probably envision taking this team to the College World Series in three or four years. There are 18 prospects on the official roster that have already committed to NCAA Division I schools, and they’ve spread the wealth. Only Louisville with three and Clemson, East Carolina, Maryland and South Carolina with two each secured more than one commitment from this group of Canes.
The roster (all 2017s) is a mix of veterans and new arrivals, four of whom are ranked in the top-63 nationally; another eight are ranked in top-180 and nine more are in the top-500. Such a collection of talent would likely be a joy to manage for any coach worth his salt, but there are certainly challenges that come with it. Try figuring out a starting 10 with this group.
That job has been handed to Gregg Conner, a longtime coach at both Powhatan (Va.) High School just outside of Richmond and at Canes Baseball. He laughed when asked about the lineup card challenge before the Canes played their tournament-opener Friday afternoon at the Player Development 5-Plex.
“We’ve got a lot of talent and (the players) going to have to buy into what we’re doing because everybody can’t bat 2 or 3 (in the order),” Conner said. “They’ve got to understand that we’re going to put them where we need them to go and that’s what makes the whole thing work.”
It is also important to remember that there also players on the roster who are yet to commit to a college, although it’s a safe bet every single one of them will be committed a year from now. They, too, will have to play prominent roles if the Canes are to win this championship.
While you have players like No. 6-ranked Jordan Adell, a U. of Louisville commit from Louisville; No. 16 JeVon Ward, a Southern Cal commit from Long Beach, Calif.; No. 43 Noah Campbell, a South Carolina recruit from Durham, N.C.; and No. 63 Ashton McGee, a North Carolina recruit from Goldsboro, N.C., there are others not so prominent.
Is there a middle ground? Not really, because every player on this roster is living high in the hill country as opposed to down in some deep river bottom. The uncommitted are really just deciding which penthouse they should move into once their high school careers conclude. For some of the more elite players with commitments, that penthouse may be in a Major League Baseball neighborhood and not in a college town.
Ward is a 6-foot-4, 185-pound California kid who is at only his third Perfect Game event and didn’t play travel ball at all this summer. But he’s no well-kept secret – his No. 16 national ranking attests to that – and on Friday he resembled nothing short of a gazelle, running out a pair of infield singles in the Canes’ 9-0, five-inning win over Flood City Elite 2018.
“I’ve been looking forward to this event for a little while now. It’s going to be a great event and I’m with a great group of guys,” Ward said pregame on Friday. “This is my first tournament with the EvoShield Canes and I can’t wait to be a part of it.”
Ward has worked with due diligence over the last couple of days to acclimate himself within the Canes’ dugout, and he has found it to be pretty easy sledding. It helped that his teammates made a tremendous first impression, one that led Ward to reach the only logical conclusion when it came to judging their character.
“They’re just all really good guys,” he said. “This is a fun group of guys – all laid-back – and they’re all great players. It’s always nice to be around other guys that you can really relate to, and that’s how I feel with these guys.”
While Ward occupies a special spot on the Canes’ roster, there is plenty of room on board for a young prospect like John Dancy, a 6-foot, 165-pound right-handed pitcher and outfielder from Charlotte, N.C. Dancy is also playing in his first tournament with the Canes after previously playing in a handful events with the Georgia Elite Yankees and SBA Canes.
He is ranked as a top-600 prospect – a “high follow” in his PG scouting parlance – and hasn’t committed to a college. He is taking his time with the whole recruiting process and on his PG Player Profile he lists no fewer than 13 schools that he’s interest in; it’s quite an eclectic list.
Right there amongst such stalwarts as Virginia, Duke and East Carolina, Dancy wouldn’t mind taking his talents and his 3.75 GPA to places like all three of the service academies – Air Force, Army and Navy – along with Penn from the Ivy League and John Hopkins University.
“It’s been enjoyable so far, just calling and contacting the different programs and seeing what they have to offer,” Dancy said Friday, speaking of the entire process. “It’s been really enjoyable but it’s kind of coming to an end now. This is where I’ve always wanted to be; I’ve always dreamed about playing at the highest level.”
The Canes invited Dancy to join the team thinking they might be to help get the ball rolling in one direction or the other this weekend. He felt it was important to be here in the first place, but to be here with the Canes and playing in front of the large number of scouts their games attract is an added bonus.
“With the EvoShield name, this is probably the best of the best,” he said. “When I was on other teams I used to look at them and think that they were probably the best guys out there, so it feels really good putting the uniform on.”
One guy who has put the EvoShield uniform on several times in the past two years is third baseman Buddy Kennedy from Millville, N.J., a hometown he shares with Los Angeles Angels superstar and 2007 PG WWBA Underclass World Championship alumnus Mike Trout.
Kennedy was named to four straight PG all-tournament teams playing for different EvoShield Canes teams the last two summers and has risen to No 169 in the national rankings, but hasn’t committed to a college yet. There are others just like him on this roster, although not as highly ranked.
“A lot of our guys have been recruited but the ones that haven’t been recruited, this is a great place to be seen,” Conner said. “You need to get out and play against the best competition you can find, and I tell them to just go out and be yourself and go for as long and as hard as you can, and then we’ve got another guy ready to go after that.”
With all the recruiting angles put aside, the matter at hand now for these EvoShield Canes is winning a WWBA Under World Championship, which has previously eluded them. The Canes won back-back PG WWBA World Championships over in Jupiter, Fla., in 2013-14.
“We all know that we’re on a business trip but we also all know that we have to have fun playing the game; that’s just how it is,” Ward said. “You can’t play baseball and not have fun. That would make everything worse. With these guys, we’re all going to have fun, and we’re going to come out here and we’re going to make some noise.”
Dancy pitched four innings of two-hit, shutout ball Friday afternoon, striking out five and walking two. There were at least 20 scouts and college recruiters watching his outing, and he felt invigorated by his teammates.
“These guys are all studs and they all just love to play baseball – and they’re all good at it,” he said. “Being around them makes everybody better and we all kind of think the same, and that makes everything a lot better.”
Ward is also taking it all in, feeling a little bit like Dancy in the sense that he, too, is operating in an unfamiliar environment. But at the end of the day, baseball is baseball and there is a championship to be won.
“Since I’m from the West Coast … it’s nice to come to the East Coast and experience the weather and see the other side of the country; it’s just to experience this,” he said. “You see a different perspective on everything, because I’m use to the West Coast guys … and I really like this group so far.
“I want to enjoy this experience and I want to win; I want to win a ring.”