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Recruiting in college sports can be a very weird process. In some cases, it plays out over months with staffs targeting specific players and using any technique they can think of to convince him to come to their school. It other cases, the right circumstances just happen to come together. That is how the WSU baseball program landed recent signee Damon Jones.
WSU assistant coach Jim Horner landed Jones, but didn't even know who he was until the first time he saw him pitch. Horner was in Colorado at a game, only because of a connection to another player. Jones happened to be pitching that night and Horner apparently just happened to sit in the stands next to Jones family. MagicValley.com has the full story, including just how easy the process can be sometimes.
"He pulled out the gun, looked at my mom and grandpa and said ‘What would you say if I offered your son a scholarship?" Jones said, via Twin Falls Times-News.
Out of context, that quote sounds much more threatening than it actually was. Horner didn't land a verbal commitment at gunpoint. The gun Jones is referring to is a radar gun, so apparently he has one hell of an arm if he landed a scholarship on one performance.
Who needs fancy photoshops and hundreds of letters. Sometimes you just need to be in the right place at the right time.
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Baseball:
True Story: TFHS, CSI Star Jones Inks with Wazzu on Whim
Former multi-sport Twin Falls high school standout and pitcher at the College of Southern Idaho, Damon Jones signed at Washington State University last week, where he’ll join former Bruins teammate Chandler Greenfield.
Women's basketball:
Girls basketball: Chanelle Molina finds comfort in early decision | Hawaii Tribune-Herald
Less than a month out from the start of her senior year in Kealakekua, Molina felt she had spoken to enough coaches and visited a sufficient amount of campuses to feel confident in announcing her decision to play her college basketball at Washington State “I really just wanted to get it over with,” said Molina. “A lot of coaches had been contacting my mom and I want to focus on my senior year.”