Pete Lelich has a dream. Like most young adults who have just finished high school, his ambition is to further his education, become a college graduate and ready himself for a world that’s increasingly competitive.
And, oh yes, one more thing: He wants one day to find his name on the roster of a major league baseball team.
It’s a dream many aspire to, of course, but Pete is determined that his vision will someday become reality.
The recent high school graduate from Grand Junction, Colo., now living in south Tempe, is clamoring for an opportunity to attend a post-high school institution where he will have a chance to gain a quality education and set a foundation for what lies ahead.
In order to fulfill his dream, Pete is pursuing an athletic scholarship that not only would shrink the cost of his college education but allow him to continue playing a sport he loves and in which he already has built a substantial name for himself.
Selected as the 3A Western Slope League’s co-player of the year in May, the 6-foot, 180-pound pitcher-catcher helped his high school team, the Palisade Bulldogs, earn No. 1 ranking in the SWL’s 2011 championships.
That, coupled with a passion for baseball that he started pursuing even before he was old enough to enroll in elementary school, have given him both the focus and the momentum to follow his dream.
The numbers show he’s not alone in his quest. Thousands of high school graduates apply for the roughly 138,000 athletic scholarships available for Division I and Division II sports every year, according to the National Collegiate Athletic Association.
The organization keeps statistics on the number of grants available in each sport and how difficult it can be to get one. Baseball, it turns out, is slightly tougher in terms of attaining a college scholarship than sports like football. Only one in 19 baseball applicants, or 5.6 percent of those who apply, receive some sort of assistance.
There’s also some good news, though. A college baseball player has a better chance of being drafted into the pros than either a football or soccer player. One in 200, or 0.5 percent, are drafted. However, there are many more draftees in baseball than in any other sport, so the odds of making it into the major leagues are still stacked against any youngster.
Most of the student athletes hoping to get an athletic scholarship started participating in their sport at a young age and have spent years and endless hours in training camps or playing in leagues to not only prepare themselves physically and mentally for the collegiate level but to give them exposure to help assure their talents are noticed.
Pete, who has played baseball for 14 of his 18 years, is one of the many young athletes who are steadfastly determined to secure themselves an opportunity to gain an athletic scholarship as a roadmap to the future.
In Pete’s case, he’s not just sitting by the phone waiting for a college coach to call him. His passion to beat the odds brought him here, primarily he says to prove this summer that he is willing to work hard for an opportunity to fulfill his dreams of attending college and playing collegiate baseball.
After graduating from Palisade High School in Grand Junction, he packed his bags and moved to south Tempe to stay with a friend’s grandmother he’d never before met.
“Last December I came to a camp in Phoenix to get some publicity and to evaluate my playing skills with kids from Arizona,” said Lelich.
“After I asked the camp coach about the possibility of joining a summer league, he quickly found me a team to play on this summer.”
Pete plays on the AZ Pro 18-and-under team, part of the Connie Mack Wood Bat League. He feels that playing in the summer league here will help hone his baseball skills and give him exposure to college baseball programs
“I think this summer will benefit me more than any other time in my life simply because of the competition in Arizona,” said Lelich. “The talent level here is elevated due to the ability to play baseball year round.
“I’m happy and thankful I got the opportunity to play.”
Despite the odds of hundreds of players vying for the limited number of baseball scholarship spots, Pete is confident in his abilities.
“Although it was a struggle in the beginning, I embraced the humiliation and competition and drew on my positive attitude and solid work ethic in practice, so now I’m playing the way I want to,” he said.
“I believe the exposure and my way of playing will help me earn a scholarship or possibly a spot on a team.”
Despite the odds faced by most players, Pete remains optimistic.
“I’d like to attend Central Arizona because of their outstanding baseball program and great coaching staff,” he said.
While he exudes confidence about his future in baseball, Pete has a backup plan on which to base his college career just in case.
“I want to major in music production,” he said. “I’d like to help artists make music, and produce my own, as well.”
So far, Pete and Artie Pearson, a retired nurse who agreed to accommodate the aspiring young athlete sight-unseen on the recommendation of her grandson, seem to be getting along just fine. She raised a family of her own and says she enjoys having a little youthful exuberance around the house.
Nor does she deny that she likes the idea of someday being able to say of her young boarder, “I knew him when.”
