SACCO: Draft’s Fitzgerald not a ‘cocky jock’

STUARTS DRAFT

Maybe it’s because it takes 27 minutes and 39 seconds for Jeremy Fitzgerald to finally stop bouncing his back against the folded-up bleachers in a dark Stuarts Draft gym.

Maybe it’s because, during that close to a half-hour span, he never really looks your way as he talks about his college choice. Opting instead to gaze toward the ceiling or down at the hardwood floor as he talks about attending Martinsville’s Patrick Henry Community College to play baseball is not settling for something. But, instead, the start of something he hopes will turn into a Division II or Division I roster spot when his two years are done there.

Maybe it’s because of his voice. A slow, deep tone riddled with “dudes” and the occasional double negative.

Maybe it’s because he plays three sports, and plays them well.

Who knows?

But, finally, after all that time looking up, looking down, looking all around expect in your eyes, the Stuarts Draft senior turns his head your way, the sparkling earring in his left lobe disappearing as his head turns.

For some reason or another, he says, people think he’s not approachable.

“Most people see me as a cocky jock,” he says as his parents, Tony and Lori, look on. Mom smiling, dad straight faced, his eyes slightly hidden under a baseball cap. “But if you don’t know me, you would say that.”

Nothing, those select few who know him say, could be further from the truth.

“But if you know me,” he says, still looking in your direction, “you wouldn’t say that.”

Maybe it’s because he has what he calls a small, select, tight-knit group of friends who you can count without even using all the fingers on one of your hands.

“I’m going to miss [them] a lot,” he says.

There’s only three in the group — Cole Beyeler, Tyler Brydge and, the one he calls his best friend, Lindsay Iseli. If you can’t find them alone, chances are they’re together, either hanging out at the local strip-mall (yes, there’s a strip mall in Draft; a couple, actually) ice cream shop where Iseli works, or sitting at someone’s house playing MLB 2K9 on the X-Box360.

Nah, the pals will tell you, Jeremy’s not cocky. He certainly very approachable. And by choosing Patrick Henry, he’s made the right choice and they’re all happy for him.

“He plays three sports,” Beyeler says. “So people see him walking around the hall and think he’s cocky. But he’s just a competitor.”

A competitive spirit that been running through his veins since the age of 4 when his first love — baseball — entered his life.

Heck, even Brydge — a freshman — thought the same thing about the Cougars’ pitching ace before he got to know him. Before they started chatting it up on the sidelines during football season, the two were about as friendly as Tom and Jerry.

“We used to not like each other at all” Brydge says. “He thought I was cocky and I thought he was cocky.”

That soon changed. As the Cougars’ No. 2 starter, Brydge has been taken under Fitzgerald’s wing, a role Fitzgerald’s very suited to play according to Josh Podgorski, Draft’s varsity baseball coach.

“[The younger players] look up to Jeremy,” he says. “It’s leadership.”

It’s leadership that comes with an infectious grin when Fitzgerald talks about why he chose a community college. He wants to add a few miles per hour to his velocity, needs to hone his on-the-mound composure (“Yeah, I get mad sometimes,” the normally-laid back 18-year-old says.) and his grades need a little polishing.

“I wouldn’t say I’m the best [student],” he says with that infectious grin, “but I’m not the worst.”

All three of his pals say they’re looking forward to seeing Fitzgerald pitching on the next level. None of them doubt, after two years, that they’ll see him on the hump at a four-year college.

“It’s exciting,” Iseli says. “I’m really excited for him.”

Is there going to baseball life for him after Patrick Henry?

“I think there will,” Iseli says without a pause.

He’s sporting a 4-2 record with a 1.9 ERA. Those who know him say he’s funny, a joker, the kind of guy who can make you laugh in a minute. He even tried to lie to coach Rod Bowers about the ankle he broke in the second football game of the season, telling the coach it was better so he could play sooner.

“Everybody says when you get to college they make the sport you play your life,” he says, still looking at you. “I don’t have a problem with baseball being my life.”

And those friends have no problem with Jeremy.