{"id":8392,"date":"2015-12-23T04:30:28","date_gmt":"2015-12-23T10:30:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nsr-inc.com\/scouting-news\/?p=8392"},"modified":"2015-12-21T11:44:10","modified_gmt":"2015-12-21T17:44:10","slug":"fill-in-pitcher-emerges-as-duke-recruit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nsr-inc.com\/scouting-news\/fill-in-pitcher-emerges-as-duke-recruit\/","title":{"rendered":"NSR pitching prospect fills need at Duke"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Cam<\/a>
Cam Kovachik, of Connecticut, signed a National Letter of Intent with Duke during the NCAA early signing period.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Before becoming New England’s area director for National Scouting Report, Brendan Kennedy was a teacher during the school year and an AAU\u00a0baseball coach in the summer.<\/p>\n

Two\u00a0AAU seasons ago, Kennedy was short a pitcher\u00a0for an upcoming weekend tournament.\u00a0 He had heard about a player who had shown potential, so he asked Cam Kovachik of Masuk High School in Monroe, Conn., to fill in.\u00a0 Kennedy was very impressed with what he saw.<\/p>\n

“He was a tall pitcher with\u00a0a good fastball and\u00a0a decent curve, but he needed to work on it.\u00a0 I gave him a few pointers and then watched him progress,”\u00a0 Kennedy said.<\/p>\n

Kennedy continue to follow Kovachik’s progress.\u00a0 His instincts to keep track of him paid off several months later.<\/p>\n

“When I started to work for NSR as a scout, I was at a game and Cam’s dad, Andy, came up and talked to me,” Kennedy said. “I explained that I was scouting high school prospects for colleges and was very interested in interviewing Cam.\u00a0 I met with Cam, Andy and his mom, Beverly.\u00a0 They originally signed Cam up for both baseball and basketball, but as he grew taller and got to 6-foot-5, he was getting more baseball attention, especially with his fastball nearing 90 mph. Soon it became apparent that he would be playing at a higher level baseball-wise, so we focused on that.”<\/p>\n

Not only is Kovachik a standout on the field, but also in the classroom. A 4.0-plus student, he was recruited by several top NCAA Division I academic schools, including Duke, Dartmouth, Georgetown, Penn State and Connecticut.<\/p>\n

Kovachik ultimately committed to Duke. He signed a National Letter of Intent with the Blue Devils during the NCAA early signing period last month.\u00a0 He will pursue a degree in Business or Sports Marketing at the Atlantic C0ast Conference school in Durham, N.C.<\/p>\n

“I am interested in schools that offer a challenging academic environment, coupled with a top-tier sports program,” Kovachik wrote in his NSR personal message to college coaches. “I would like to get an undergrad degree in business or business administration, but I also want a well-rounded education that will help me excel in my future endeavors.”<\/p>\n

Duke fit the bill.<\/p>\n

“Cam decided on Duke\u00a0because of it’s stellar\u00a0academic\u00a0reputation,” Kennedy said, “and he is well-prepared to handle the course load he will have there.\u00a0 As for baseball, if he continues to grow and develop, he sh0uld make quite an impact for his team.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Before becoming New England’s area director for National Scouting Report, Brendan Kennedy was a teacher during the school year and an AAU\u00a0baseball coach in the summer. Two\u00a0AAU seasons ago, Kennedy was short a pitcher\u00a0for an upcoming weekend tournament.\u00a0 He had heard about a player who had shown potential, so he asked Cam Kovachik of Masuk … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":29,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[3],"tags":[255,331,317,31,330,222],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nsr-inc.com\/scouting-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8392"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nsr-inc.com\/scouting-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nsr-inc.com\/scouting-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsr-inc.com\/scouting-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/29"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsr-inc.com\/scouting-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8392"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsr-inc.com\/scouting-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8392\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8811,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsr-inc.com\/scouting-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8392\/revisions\/8811"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nsr-inc.com\/scouting-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8392"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsr-inc.com\/scouting-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8392"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nsr-inc.com\/scouting-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8392"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}