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Last Updated: May 11th, 2009 - 14:18:42 |
As good as Kirk Thurston is on the baseball field, he may be just as good in the classroom. The same couldn't be said seven years ago.
That was the last time he played collegiate baseball.
Thurston, a shortstop for the College of the Redwoods, set five single-season batting records for the Corsairs this year and on Wednesday was voted to the All-Golden Valley Conference first team.
More importantly though, he passed 21 units and made the honor roll last semester. If he wouldn't have hit the books then, he couldn't have hit the field in the spring.
”I was real skeptical for him to pass that many units in the first place,” CR interim head coach Todd Zeigler said. “From day one I checked in with him every day or two. Once I saw a pattern after five or six weeks that he was going to class and doing well on his tests, I kinda backed off.
”He kept checking back in, saying, 'Coach, I got another A!' He was really proud of that. His family comes from tough luck, he was never focused on academics. So for him to make the honor roll, I couldn't be more proud of the kid.”
Thurston's is the story of potential reclaimed.
Back in 2002, Thurston's freshman year at CR, Zeigler watched his star center fielder from Arcata fly around the outfield then do the same around the diamond. Thurston hit six triples and scored 31 runs on his way to earning first-team all conference honors.
His athleticism was obvious and it was reinforced this season when he earned the same honor at an entirely new position. It was also no small feat to get noticed on a CR team that finished dead last in the league.
However, after his freshman year Thurston almost threw it all away. He enrolled his sophomore year and was academically ineligible by the time basball season rolled around.
”He wasn't ready to make the commitment academically,” said Zeigler, who started as an assistant at CR in 1996.
When Zeigler was announced at the interim head coach last year -- head coach Bob Brown took a year leave for the birth of his daughter -- Thurston asked what he had to do to play.
Zeigler told him he had to take 18 units and pass them with a 3.0, something that would have been unrealistic to expect from the teenage Thurston. Well, he took more units “just in case,” replaced some of those old one-legged A's with real ones, and now is two classes from being academically eligible to transfer to a Division 2 school.
”Before, he took his athletic ability for granted. He knew he was good and he thought if he was good then someone will find him,” Zeigler said. “Now he knows he has a lot of skill but didn't take full advantage of it. He still has a chance to play and he's taking advantage of every chance he gets. He just figured it out.
When guys start to mature, they make commitments to what they really want. They start to show their true colors. That's what Thurston did. He's just a great story.”
And his story could continue beyond this year.
Zeigler said a few schools are showing interest in bringing Thurston aboard. The tribute here is that they love the numbers he puts up, of course, but they perhaps value more the kind of leader he is on the field.
”I've had other coaches come up to me and say, 'Man, you guys were down but your shortstop never quit telling his teammates to stay in the game,'” Zeigler said. “A lot of these coaches I'm talking to say they need to have a leader and that's exactly what he is.”
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