Mike Vukovcan Charlie Smetana is obsessed with baseball and to have the opportunity to play it beyond high school.
As he enters his senior season, Smetana is still waiting for that first college scholarship offer. And while he might be waiting for that phone call or in-person offer, he’s not sitting around his house doing nothing.
Hopewell softball and youth baseball is sponsored by Lisa McCoy, your neighborhood State Farm agent.
Since the end of the Hopewell HS baseball season, Smetana has been playing off-season baseball with various teams, namely BV Baseball. He’s also attended and been invited to a number of prospect camps/showcase events. The purpose of that is to showcase his skills in front of college scouts and coaches that attend these events.
Six or seven years ago Smetana would likely have earned a scholarship by now but with the landscape of college athletics having been completely changed. Because of the transfer portal, less scholarships are available for players in sports such as basketball and baseball. Reason being is that instead of using scholarships on young high school athletes, college teams have opted to instead use them on players in the transfer portal that already have college experience.
This change in recruiting is no doubt unfortunate for high school athletes but it’s the way things are and they must now adapt and work harder.
That’s not an issue for Smetana, it’s actually a source of motivation.
Over the weekend, Smetana is in Maryland after receiving an invitation to attend the 21st annual Crab Claw Classic. This is a scouting combine for players in Pennsylvania, Maryland, DC, New Jersey, Virginia, West Virginia and Ohio area. It allows these players to compete against others in the Mid-Atlantic Region in front of college coaches, scouts and pro scouts.
The way it works is, Saturday is a combine event, where all the players compete against each other and are test in events such as fastest runner, top arm, top fielder, top pitcher, top contact hitter, top power hitter, top prospect award. These players are basically competing in a professional baseball tryout format.
After the winners of these events are announced, the coaches, scouts and directors of the event pick two teams of players from the hundreds in attendance to play in two All-Star Games at Hartford Community College Stadium.
Congratulations to Smetana as he was selected as one of the players to stay around and play this afternoon. Considering the amount of players that worked out on Saturday, that’s an impressive accomplishment.
Not only did Smetana make this All-Star team, he also won two of the skill competitions.
Charlie won the best arm award with a pop time of 1.95. That was the first time he was under 2.0 in a showcase event. In case you’re not familiar with the term, pop time it takes a catcher to catch the ball, pop out of his catching stance and release the ball towards second base.
Smetana not only excelled defensively but impressed with his bat as well as he won the award for the best contact hitter. That’s a big one for him.
Keep working Chuck and good luck this afternoon. You’re time is coming soon.
