Men - Close call for Justin Willis/Family in Miami Building Collapse | The Boneyard

Men Close call for Justin Willis/Family in Miami Building Collapse

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Whoa is right. I'm happy that they are okay. What is the backstory on Justin? How was UConn able to recruit a New Jersey kid who was on the Vanderbilt team. I don't believe that he played when Vandy won the CWS.
 
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Whoa is right. I'm happy that they are okay. What is the backstory on Justin? How was UConn able to recruit a New Jersey kid who was on the Vanderbilt team. I don't believe that he played when Vandy won the CWS.

Specific reasons, I would not pretend to know. I can guess on a few. Probably Willis saw the writing on the wall at Vandy and saw that he was not going to be one of their top tier pitchers or get much scholarship money from them. Maybe he wanted to come back home and go to a northeast school not far from home. If that is the case, UConn has to be in consideration as being the top baseball school in the northeast, and there is certainly an appeal in that. Plus the UConn coaching staff has certainly developed a reputation for getting players ready for pro ball and the MLB draft, especially when it comes to having pitchers who have potential who they develop and end up getting drafted.

I imagine that once Justin Willis gets back from that eventful Florida vacation, he will probably be joining his UConn teammate Zach Bushling and meeting up with him in Keene to play with the Swamp Bats. Willis has played summer ball with the Swamp Bats before. I'm not sure, but this could be his third summer season with them.
 
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Specific reasons, I would not pretend to know. I can guess on a few. Probably Willis saw the writing on the wall at Vandy and saw that he was not going to be one of their top tier pitchers or get much scholarship money from them. Maybe he wanted to come back home and go to a northeast school not far from home. If that is the case, UConn has to be in consideration as being the top baseball school in the northeast, and there is certainly an appeal in that. Plus the UConn coaching staff has certainly developed a reputation for getting players ready for pro ball and the MLB draft, especially when it comes to having pitchers who have potential who they develop and end up getting drafted.

I imagine that once Justin Willis gets back from that eventful Florida vacation, he will probably be joining his UConn teammate Zach Bushling and meeting up with him in Keene to play with the Swamp Bats. Willis has played summer ball with the Swamp Bats before. I'm not sure, but this could be his third summer season with them.
Thank you. I always forget the full scholarship issues with baseball players. Good for UConn that they are a top destination.
 
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While I'm obviously glad he and his family are o.k., can I ask the obvious selfish questions: do we expect him back next year to compete with Marerro for the closer's role?
 
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While I'm obviously glad he and his family are o.k., can I ask the obvious selfish questions: do we expect him back next year to compete with Marerro for the closer's role?

I don't recall if Justin Willis was one of the players on Senior Day who was honored for getting a UConn degree. While I expect to see a few players leave UConn baseball this summer (nothing unusual there, players moving around in college baseball has always been a fairly common thing), it would hardly surprise me to see Willis back in Storrs next fall. Whether or not he is the closer, I would expect him to see plenty of time on the mound out of the bullpen.

By the way, another guy who was getting good notices out of the bullpen last fall was Devin Kirby, another California JUCO, before missing this past season with an injury. Hopefully he will be healthy enough to pitch this coming fall, or perhaps even make some sort of appearance at some point in summer ball.
 
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-> “He’s always had a slow heartbeat. Nothing seems to fluster him,” said UConn coach Jim Penders, who has been in contact with Willis and his family several times since Thursday’s tragedy. “It was incredible how composed he was, how present he was for his family. He wanted to talk. He wasn’t shutting down. I said he must be in shock, and he said, ‘Yeah.’ He sounded like he sounds when I hand him the ball — OK, we have a job to do. Let’s go. ... I couldn’t imagine myself at that age going through something like that and being as composed as he was.” <-
 
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Here’s some insight in your question above @businesslawyer:

-> Justin, who transferred to UConn from Vanderbilt a few years ago, needs a couple more credits to graduate in resource economics. If nothing happens with pro baseball, he has another year of eligibility and would love to play another season at UConn. He is supposed to play for Keene, N.H., in the New England Collegiate Baseball League this summer.

“I’m going to think about it now to decide if it’s worth it,” Willis said. “If I have to do it, I will. I definitely want to play to take my mind off it. I love baseball as much as anything. At the same time, after this, if I can have some time with my family before I go back to school, I want to take it. <-
 

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