Kyle King, an Allan Hancock College student, is not your typical college sophomore.
A Bakersfield native, King left California after graduating high school and began his college journey in Mount Carmel, Ill., at a small community college.
Why Mount Carmel? Simple. King was able to continue playing baseball there.
Baseball was something he was dead-set on playing in college, but it wasn’t easy finding the right fit.
“I just wanted to keep playing baseball,” the left-handed pitcher told the Sun. “If I was able to sign with a four-year school out of high school [for baseball], I would’ve done that in a heartbeat. But I wasn’t good enough then, and I didn’t get very good grades.”
After experiencing the Midwest lifestyle, King started to miss the sunshine of his home state. Following his freshman year, King decided to move back to California.
Upon his return, King received a phone call from Chris Stevens, baseball coach at Allan Hancock College. The timing of Stevens’ call couldn’t have been better.
“I was actually about to commit to another junior college in California when Stevens called,” King remembered. “Coach Stevens asked me to give it one more weekend to mull it over.”
That weekend made all the difference. King decided to move up to Santa Maria and attend Hancock for his sophomore season. After a successful year pitching, he was recruited by Cal State Long Beach, and signed a commitment letter to the school early June.
King wasn’t alone in his success at Hancock. Out of the 14 sophomores who suited up for the Bulldogs baseball team in 2016, eight were recruited to play for four-year universities—and all of them are at least planning to attend a four-year college to earn a degree.
And like King, other Hancock sophomores have taken winding paths through the junior college system.
Jacob Tonascia, a first baseman from Hollister who recently committed to Cal State Monterey, started his college journey at a community college in the San Francisco Bay Area. Tonascia battled injuries and coaching changes at that school, and he eventually found himself in Santa Maria where he knew some family.
Trudging through different community colleges while staying optimistic about baseball wasn’t always easy for Tonascia, but it ultimately provided a great opportunity for development.
“It’s a little more of a grind [going through the junior college system],” Tonascia said. “You don’t have all of the glitter and sparkle of going to a four-year school right off the bat. But I can say for myself that this year has been the biggest year of growth for me as a baseball player.”
Tonascia, King, and their teammates found a home at Hancock. The Bulldogs became a community, and the players set their minds to the common goal of working hard to make each other better, and to, as they frequently say, “keep the dream alive.”
“Every day we’d compete against each other just to make each and every player better than they were the day before,” Tonascia said. “The competitiveness we had among the players made it so that everyone wanted to get better.”
King shared a similar sentiment about the team culture.
“It’s fun to show up every day and try to be better than the guy next to you,” he said. “We were extremely close. We can throw some insults at each other and know it’s all fun and games at the end of the day.”
The strong bonds and character of the Hancock baseball team this season was striking to even the program’s leader, coach Stevens. Having just wrapped up his 15th season as head coach of the Bulldogs, Stevens called the 2016 team one of the best teams he’s ever coached.
“They were extremely coachable, and they were great in the classroom,” Stevens said, noting, “I can make a million phone calls to [four-year college] coaches, but if they don’t have the grades to get into those schools then it doesn’t matter.”
The players made sure to utilize all the resources provided by Hancock—from the baseball diamond, to the weight room, to various student services like academic tutors.
Stevens said he loves his coaching gig because he believes that community college is the “most developmental level” of baseball to coach.
“They come in very young. There’s still a boy in them,” Stevens said. “By the time they’re leaving me, they’re 20, 21 years old. You get to watch them grow and develop as young men.”
So, while King started his adulthood in the middle of nowhere in Illinois, three years later, he will suit up for a Division 1 baseball team. King shared some parting words of wisdom with the Sun, which really seemed aimed at the countless 18-year-olds who love a sport, but find themselves without a school to play for.
“You have to really want it,” King said. “A coach has a network of contacts, but it really doesn’t come down to him knowing people. You have to get yourself there.”
Contributor Peter Johnson can be reached at pjohnson@newtimesslo.com.
This article appears in Jun 16-23, 2016.