On Aug. 17, senior Josh Jacobs committed to play baseball at Claremont McKenna College. He is looking forward to attending an outstanding college.
“I would say the biggest thing is academics,” Jacobs said. “And then the way the school supports their students and makes sure that they have successful lives in the classroom, beyond the classroom and then beyond college, that was very appealing to me. And the facilities [are] really nice.”
Jacobs has been playing baseball since he was three years old. His parents enrolled him in Little League baseball and he has loved it ever since.
“He always wanted to play,” said his father and math teacher Adam Jacobs. ”He always loved hitting, and always, always just loved playing baseball.”
One large motivation for Jacobs to continue working hard at baseball is winning. As baseball is a very difficult sport, failure is more common than success. However, the possibility of success is what really encourages him to keep getting better.
“What really pushes me is the fact that success is there and potential to succeed is always there,” Jacobs said. “When you actually fulfill that potential and succeed at … getting a hit, getting on base, winning a game [or] winning a championship, it feels really good.”
Jacobs wasn’t always planning on continuing baseball in college. He had been debating it for a long time over the summer.
However, according to Aragon varsity baseball coach Don Hahn, it came as no shock that his final decision was to go to college for baseball.
“He loves the game, and he’s very good at it, but he puts a lot of work in,” Hahn said., “So did it surprise me? No, not at all.”
Claremont’s offer was a large deciding factor in Jacobs’ choice. The offer itself came as a pretty big surprise to him. He had been primarily researching places like Seattle University or Chapman University and didn’t even learn of Claremont’s existence until they emailed him. Still, Jacobs is very satisfied with the college and his friends and family are both very proud.
“I was very excited for him to have the opportunity to play at the college level,” Adam Jacobs said. “Because such a small percentage of high school athletes actually play college sports.”
It wasn’t easy for Jacobs to get where he is now. During the baseball season last year, he hit a slump where he was struggling hitting-wise. It got to the point where the coach only gave Jacobs one at-bat. However, Jacobs persevered and overcame it during a game against Wilcox High School.
“I ended up hitting a home run,” Jacobs said. “And that was my breakthrough. It was a moment that just sparked something in my swing.”
After getting over his slump, Jacobs went on to have a great hitting season. Despite the difficulty, he persisted and ended up playing better than before.
Another challenge for Jacobs was time commitment. Working on baseball took a lot of time that he could’ve spent doing something else.
“I noticed that during the summer he had to choose between football and baseball,” said senior Zachary Floresca. “That impacted how the coaches saw him on the football team because they felt like he was uncommitted to football because he was playing baseball.”
Nevertheless, Jacobs feels that the sacrifice is worth it, even needed in order to get better.
“If you want to go to the next level at anything, you have to be able to sacrifice a lot of stuff,” Jacobs said. ”Like times with friends, hanging out [or] going out. You have to be able to spend time working at whatever it is you’re doing.”
He attributes his determination to his motivation to continue practicing.
“[It’s very important] to find a way to work, or not give excuses to yourself that you can’t do something,” Jacobs said.
Although unsure whether he will continue playing baseball after college, Jacobs still plans to work extremely hard during his time at Claremont McKenna.
