By Alexis Brudnicki
PBR Ontario Lead Writer

Every draft class comes with its own set of what ifs.

Ranking atop the upcoming high school class in Ontario, the questions surrounding OF Demi Orimoloye (St. Matthew HS, ON) extend back to last year, to the selection process the 18-year-old recently found out he could have been a part of. The only problem was, no one knew he was eligible to be drafted.

“I didn’t even know,” Orimoloye said.

Things could have been very different for the outfielder, and therein lies the burning questions.

What if he had realized? What if any number of scouts had been aware? What if Orimoloye hadn’t enrolled in the current school year—before finding out that there was no need to—and he had become an undrafted free agent? What if the Orleans native hadn’t skipped first grade?

In the case of the latter question, Orimoloye would probably be exactly where he currently is.

“When I was young…I went one year with the kids my age and then my parents (Adenike and Segun) said, ‘Let’s just skip him,’” he said. “So they skipped me and I’ve always been a year ahead.

“Then baseball just kind of blew up and they asked, ‘Do you want to go back with your normal age (group) because of the draft and everything?’ And I said, ‘I’ll just stay,’ because it was seven years after they had put me ahead. I was already with (my class), so I just finished early.

“Then I found out (about) a month after the draft. They said, ‘You know you could have been drafted?’ because I graduated last year. But I didn’t even know that.”