Pollard Looks Forward To Playing At D-I St. Peter's

STOW - Michael Pollard was late to the recruiting game. But it did not stop the Walsh Jesuit senior from making a commitment to play Division I baseball at St. Peter’s University.

“As a freshman I was 140 pounds,” Pollard related. “As a sophomore 150 pounds. Now I’m 180 pounds.”

The increased size has proven beneficial for the Walsh Jesuit senior.

“I was a lot smaller and late to the recruiting process,” Pollard reflected. “I definitely hit the weight room and then around the beginning of my junior year I noticed I was competing with the better guys. I was getting bigger and started getting looks. I contacted a lot of schools but they couldn’t come see me because of covid.”

At the start of last summer, Pollard’s first strong interest came from Akron.

“I turned a lot of heads between my sophomore and junior years because of my increased size and speed,” Pollard noted. “I was always confident, but didn’t really have thoughts about D-I.”

Overcoming the restrictions due to covid made recruitment more difficult.

“It hindered me a lot,” Pollard admitted. “I had contact with multiple D-I schools that wanted to see me but they didn’t have a chance to come over and see me.”

Numerous phone conversations took place, including with St. Peter’s.

“They started talking with me around New Year’s,” Pollard pointed out. “They saw my measurables on PBR and liked a video of me. They needed an outfielder and they said they felt I’m a good fit for them. A few weeks ago they offered and I didn’t want to pass up the D-I opportunity. Akron wanted me to wait and I had interest from D-II Charleston. Those were the schools I liked the most and was heavily considering. But I wanted to be done with it and I really liked St. Peter’s. It has a nice business school and I really like the campus.”

Pollard, who has been to New York, sees attending school in that area of the country as very beneficial in the long run.

“I want to be a business major and a lot of CEOs from New York City teach classes there,” explained Pollard, who carries a 3.4 GPA at Walsh Jesuit. “Mainly the opportunities this presents is the big thing. The fact that I can get internships out of college in New York City is pretty big.”

Pollard has received a lot of influence from others to get to this point of being a Division I college baseball commit.

“It started with coach Kaczmar,” Pollard said in reference to the Walsh Jesuit head coach Chris Kaczmar.”He helped me with all he could do. My dad also helped with reaching out to schools along with all the coaches on my summer team.”

Pollard now looks forward to making an impact on and off the field in the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference program.

“Definitely, I’ll buy into their culture,” Pollard said. “I’m a hard worker that will definitely turn heads in the weight room.”

Admittedly, more improvement is needed before arriving at the school located in Jersey City, New Jersey.

“I’m confident in my hitting now but I know hitting at D-I is different,” Pollard explained. “Getting better at-bats now will help get me ready for playing at the higher level.”