It is always a special day when you realize your dream of playing collegiate sports.
On Wednesday, four Joplin Eagles did just that as Kohl Cooper (Crowder College), David Fiscus (St. Louis Community College) and Josh Harryman (Three Rivers College) all inked their name to play collegiate baseball, while Ben Wardlow signed his letter of intent to swim at William Jewell College.
“Being able to compete at the college level is a big deal,” Wardlow said. “It was always a dream of mine. … Seeing all of the work I have put in over the last four years pay off, it means the world to me.”
Growing up as the son of former Joplin baseball coach and current administrator Kirk Harryman, Josh Harryman always wanted to play baseball at the college level. Josh went to his dad, a former pitcher himself in college, and had a heart-to-heart talk early in his high school career. Understanding his bat wasn’t strong enough to be at the college level and knowing he didn’t throw hard enough to be a traditional college pitcher, Josh knew he had to get creative to reach his goals. It was one of the best pieces of advice Josh received from his father because it ultimately led to a college baseball career at Three Rivers.
With his junior season lost to the pandemic, Josh used that time to transform himself into a very successful submarine relief pitcher, a style his father was forced to do in college after dealing with injuries.
“I got the opportunity a lot of kids don’t, and I didn’t think I was going to get that opportunity either,” Josh Harryman said. “I was a 5’8 kid that threw maybe 74 mph. Now, I drop down low, throw 74 mph and I get people out. It is crazy the little things you can tweak that make a world of difference. … Covid affected a lot of people. Besides sitting on the couch, the one thing I felt sane doing was going and playing catch. My dad did it in college. All I needed was my dad, a glove and a baseball. We practiced every day to get better in the areas I could in that difficult time.”
Crowder has a long-standing tradition of baseball excellence at the JUCO level. The Roughriders are a year-in-year-out force to be reckoned with in Region 16, regularly making deep postseason runs while sending players off to excellent four-year universities when they aren’t being drafted to the majors. That pedigree is the exact reason why Cooper, a corner outfielder/pitcher and middle-of-the-order bat for the Eagles, was thrilled with the opportunity to play for Crowder coach Travis Lallemand.
“They have a great baseball history and a great line of coaches there,” Cooper said. “I have toured the facilities and stuff like that and it is some of the best stuff I have ever seen. I really love the discipline there. That is the biggest thing. I want to be a part of that. …What better opportunity than a place like Crowder to come your way. That was a sign from God to me and I am excited to see where God takes me.”
Asking student-athletes why they chose the school they did will get you a lot of different answers. Some prefer the closeness to home, while others really enjoyed their time on campus and the prospects life as a student offers. For Fiscus, Joplin’s starting catcher, he was really impressed with the coaching and structure of St. Louis CC.
“I really liked the coaching and how they talked and had things laid out,” Fiscus said. “One of the key things I really looked at was how they went through practice and what their main focus was. I really liked their answers. And I asked about catchers. As much as I like practice, I value the individual time I get to work on catching. That is how I am going to get better. I talked with them about that a lot and I really liked what I heard.”
Of course, deciding on what college to attend while being a student-athlete can be a mentally-daunting task. With so many factors coming into play, it can come down to that one outlier that other schools may not offer. For Wardlow, he found out about a prestigious academic program he qualified for at William Jewell that would give him a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity all while fulfilling his love for competitive swimming—the Oxbridge Honors program.
“My freshman and sophomore year, I will get accustomed to the tutorial style of learning,” Wardlow said. “Then in my junior year, I will get to go be a student over at the University of Oxford [Oxford, England]. All of that on top of being able to swim four years in Kansas City — home of the Chiefs — it is a no-brainer for me. It is a blessing from above.”
