Baseball

High school baseball: Pocono Mountain West’s JD Greeley is The Morning Call All-Area Offensive Player of Year

High school baseball: Pocono Mountain West's JD Greeley is The Morning Call All-Area Offensive Player of Year

The pandemic wasn’t actually what JD Greeley had as a top priority for a birthday present in 2020, however that is the thing that he got.

On his seventeenth birthday celebration, March 13, 2020, Greeley was informed that his lesser baseball at Pocono Mountain West was being closed down because of the spiking number of COVID-19 cases.

At the point when it began, Greeley, in the same way as other in nearby games, thought it was simply going to be something brief and he was given a decision.

“I disclosed to him that it was most likely simply going to be fourteen days and possibly you will improve in those fourteen days or you will deteriorate,” said Jerry Greeley, the long-term lead trainer at King’s College and JD’s dad. “JD just went off the deep end buckling down in that time span. He has consistently been a diligent employee. He is continually doing a great deal of work with medication balls and he’s continually hitting. He loves to hit.”

While the pandemic-related deferral went on any longer than expected, so accomplished Greeley’s diligent effort.

He never got back on the field for the Panthers in 2020, yet he took advantage of his senior year in 2021.

Greeley hit .543 with an incredible 1.787 OPS. He had 25 hits, scored 27 runs, thumped in 20 runs, and hit five homers. He struck out only multiple times and added 19 taken in turning into The Morning Call’s 2021 Offensive Player of the Year in secondary school baseball.

The Monmouth University-bound Greeley was additionally viewed as a pitcher of the year applicant in the wake of going 4-1 on the hill with a 0.76 ERA in 27⅔ innings with only nine strolls and 44 strikeouts.

He likewise moved around protectively for mentor Steve Mason, playing shortstop and focus field, and made only four blunders in 51 possibilities. He will pitch and playing numerous situations at Monmouth too.

“Going into the closure last year, I had some Division I interest, however nothing excessively huge,” Greeley said. “So when we had the opportunity off during the closure, I took the time genuinely and required each day as a gift and just utilized the 24 hours God offers us as well as could be expected and buckled down. I got more Division I moving into summer ball as a result of the difficult work I put in.”

Greeley said thanks to Mason for utilizing him at an assortment of positions.

“He needed to do what was best for my advancement at a higher level and he prepared me for that,” Greeley said. “A great deal of folks would have recently put their best player at shortstop or had them pitch, however he let me play all over.”

Greeley helped Pocono Mountain West go 9-11 generally and fit the bill for the District 11 6A competition where the Panthers were disposed of by inevitable hero Emmaus.

He was additionally a soccer player and b-ball starter at West and is glad for his circles colleagues Christian Fermin, who as of late dedicated to VCU.

However, Greeley’s first love has consistently been baseball on account of his dad, who has not exclusively been the mentor at King’s since 2003 yet has likewise been an expert mentor in the Major League Baseball’s small time framework for a very long time, a considerable lot of them spent in the Orioles association.

“Being around my father, baseball has consistently been an energy of mine,” he said. “I need to play expertly, so it’s consistently in my mind and I convey a load of emotional baggage. I propel myself difficult to accomplish my fantasies.”

Asked what he gained from being alongside his father in the expert positions, Greeley said it was much off-the-field stuff as it was baseball basics.

“There are so numerous life exercises I mastered being down there,” he said. “I have had the chance to meet players where they were rehabbing or they were simply beginning subsequent to being drafted. I’ve had the chance to meet folks like Kevin Gausman, Jonathan Schoop, Manny Machado, and Jim Thome too. It has been cool and enlightening to perceive how those folks handle themselves on the field and simply their customary life.”

Being around ace storage spaces has additionally empowered Greeley to find out about individuals from different nations like the Dominican Republic, Cuba, and China among others.

It has all been important for Greeley’s schooling interaction and part of the reasons why he’s a remarkable baseball player as well as a balanced individual.

He was Pocono Mountain West’s chosen one as an Eastern Pennsylvania Conference researcher competitor in two games and served on the alliance’s Student-Athlete Character/Sportsmanship Council, a gathering devoted to the turn of events and advancement of character and sportsmanship.

It is no big surprise why Mason said basically: “JD is an extraordinary pioneer and an incredible individual on and off the field.”

Greeley is glad for where he leaves the Pocono Mountain West program. He accepts the Panthers are on the ascent.

“I wouldn’t exchange my colleagues for the world,” he said. “They are companions I’ll have for the remainder of my life.”

Mentor Greeley is glad for his child and deservedly so.

“I get a ton of praises about him with individuals discussing what a decent child he is and that is significantly more essential to me than the commendations about baseball,” Jerry Greeley said. “I’m a custom curriculum instructor in the Pocono Mountain School District and he is consistently eager to assist out with unique requirements kids. He’s a decent colleague, a decent understudy, he’s simply a great child generally and I’m extremely glad for him.”

PAST PLAYERS OF THE YEAR

2019: Steven Luke, Notre Dame-Green Pond

2018: Alec Huertas, Freedom

2017: Jared Burcin, Liberty

2016: Carson Freeman, Bangor

2015: Chris Rabasco, Parkland

2014: Gabe Mosser, Parkland

2013: Justin Aungst, Salisbury

2012: Dan Shepherd, Nazareth

2011: Mike Garzillo, Nazareth

2010: Justin Pacchioli, Easton

2009: Brian Ernst, Salisbury

2008: Cory Kent, Wilson

2007: Logan Marshall, Notre Dame-GP

2006: Rob Schubach, So. Lehigh

2005: Steve Gable, Emmaus

2004: J.T. Brotosky, Liberty

2003: Garrison Rausch, Parkland

2002: Matt Allen, Wilson

2001: Justin Kashner, Pleasant Valley

2000: Mike Mihalik, Parkland

1999: Scott Garcsar, Freedom

1998: Josh Perich, Northwestern

1997: Tim Superka, Catasauqua

1996: Eric Spadt, Northampton

1995: Eric Spadt, Northampton

1994: Brian Schneider, Northampton

1993: Mike Terhune, Pocono Mountain, and Bob Brown, Parkland

1992: Mike Terhune, Pocono Mountain

1991: Duane Filchner, Northampton

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