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Ragan signs with Davis & Elkins
BHS graduate will compete for spot in outfield
Bassett High School's Paris Ragan recently signed a partial academic/athletic scholarship to play baseball for Davis & Elkins College. Picture are (front row, from left) his mother, Sheila Ragan; Paris Ragan, (back row) Bassett High School principal Dean Randall; athletic director Jason Wood and head baseball coach Bill Parks. (Bulletin photo by Chase Young)
Sunday, August 23, 2009
By CHASE YOUNG - Bulletin Sports Writer
Bassett High School graduate Paris Ragan has spent a lot of time on the baseball diamond, working hard to get noticed.
This summer, he finally did, and now the outfielder will attend Davis and Elkins College in Elkins, W.Va., on a combined athletic/academic scholarship.
“I was fortunate enough to coach him,” said BHS baseball coach Bill Parks. “You have gamers and great practice players, and then you have guys that are both. He didn’t know what it meant to take a play off. He was always striving to be perfect. That motivated him and improved his hitting in the offseason ... Coaching kids like that is an absolute pleasure.”
Due in great part to his work ethic, and specifically his efforts during summer league baseball with Martinsville’s American Legion Post 42 team, Ragan secured a late spot on the Davis and Elkins roster for the upcoming season.
“It wasn’t really until legion ball (that he came to our attention),” said Davis and Elkins’ head baseball coach Ronnie Palmer. “Another young man down your way, Cameron Martin, who we signed earlier, put us onto Paris, and Cameron had nothing but good things to say about Paris.”
According to the Senators’ coach, after seeing the outfielder in no more than two games, he decided to offer a scholarship.
“Usually we do take care of probably 90 percent, if not more, of our recruiting early in fall and into the spring,” said Palmer. “I think we were fortunate that we got to see Paris and he was still available. ... When I saw him, I wanted to jump on that as soon as I could and get him over here.”
Palmer added that in the games in which he saw Ragan he recognized a “very solid arm,” his hustle, that he hit for average and that he had a “little bit of pop in his bat.”
Palmer is entering his third year as head coach of the Senators and compiled a 24-31 record last season after a 1-9 start, good for second in the West Virginia Intercollegiate Athletic Conference, he said.
According to Parks, Ragan was an invited walk-on at the University of Virginia at Wise, but he had decided to forgo that option before hearing from the Senators, who according to Palmer, are not planning on redshirting the hopeful center fielder.
“He’ll have an opportunity to compete for time, and if he takes away a starting position from an upper classman, then so be it,” said Palmer. “That’s how it works.”
After a junior season in 2008 in which Ragan went 9-for-38 from the plate for a .237 batting average, the determined athlete got to work. In 2009, Ragan went 17-for-47 for a .362 average and earned a spot on the All-Piedmont District second team as an outfielder. But the effort didn’t stop there.
“Honestly, I sat in front of a mirror and worked with my hands every night,” said Ragan. “Making sure my hands were going straight to the baseball, and pretty much stayed in a (batting) cage the entire offseason.”
According to Ragan, a will to play baseball at the collegiate level since he was in the sixth grade drove him to spend much of the summer working on his production at the plate.
While the effort has paid off, Ragan had no intentions of taking a break.
“You never stop getting better, so I’ll always be working,” he said.
“I’m happy for him and it couldn’t happen to a better kid,” added Parks. “’Cause I know all the things he did away from the scene to get ready for this. I really think they’re gonna like what they’ve got in this kid.”
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