Blue-chip recruit Riley Quick signed with Alabama baseball over SEC football offers on Wednesday
As scouts took in the freshest look at then-high school junior offensive tackle recruit Pierce Quick, Wayne Quick put onlookers on notice for the Alabama verbal commitment's little brother Riley.
"Wait until you see the next one, though you'll cover him for baseball," Wayne said.
That was in 2018. It turns out dad was right.
On Wednesday, Riley Quick signed a National Letter of Intent for Alabama baseball as a pitching prospect. He is 6'6", 255 pounds with a fastball that can touch 93 miles per hour ahead of his senior season at the prep level.
But this decision wasn't simply which baseball program to commit to while monitoring the upcoming Major League Baseball Draft, like it is for most prospects. In between wrapping up plans to sign at Trussville (Ala.) Hewitt-Trussville High School Wednesday evening, Auburn football head coach Bryan Harsin sent a follow-up text message to the two-way line recruit.
"We need you."
In between baseball showcases, Riley followed in Pierce's footsteps as a dominant offensive and defensive lineman on the Huskies' Class 7A football team in the state's most competitive region. It garnered two dozen football offers.
Even after committing to Alabama baseball this summer, football programs like Auburn and Mississippi State never slowed down the process of courting Riley as at least a part-time football player at the next level. There was even talk about playing both sports at Mississippi State, at one point, but all of that is behind the family as of late Tuesday evening.
Everybody has been consulted in the big decision, from high school football and baseball coaches, mentors, Pierce and the rest of the family.
"I was playing football and baseball over the summer and I was kind of like, 'I want to play baseball.'" Riley said. "I love baseball more."
Two days after inking with baseball full-time in regards to his future, Riley will continue to suit up for the Hewitt-Trussville football team, continuing a playoff run Friday against the top seed in the state, Hoover (Ala.) High School.
That will be it as far as football is concerned.
"It's going to be tough," he said of that final day in full pads. "I'm going to be really upset, I'm not gonna lie. But I'll be alright.
"You've gotta do what you gotta do."
That same mentality helped Riley connect with the football coaches interested in him, letting them know one last time that he was all-in on baseball beginning in 2022. It wasn't easy in the summer and he expects it to be even harder to accomplish this time around.
It's the love for both sports that has created a year-round, often sacrificial process to pick one at a given time. Even this fall, just as his senior football campaign was to begin, the baseball world was shifting towards the time of year most multi-sport players focus on the diamond.
It was USA baseball season, typically when baseball prospects reach the height of attention before moving to the college or professional level. It stretches from late July to mid-September, meaning more than half of the 2021 football season would have been missed. Not to mention getting back into football shape in order to play in the trenches within Alabama's highest classification.
Riley opted to get in one last football season, in full, instead. It came with much scrutiny from the baseball world, one often criticized for focusing on one-sport specialization at the youth level. Negativity came from baseball coaches, scouts and advisors alike. Then it shifted to an internal struggle in making the final call Wednesday.
"It's been tough," Wayne said. "Even up until this week. He loves football and he loves baseball. He's been playing both since he was six years old."
Navigating the football process with his oldest son, all-in on football before Pierce signed with Alabama, helped the family ask the right questions regardless of sport when it came to aiding Riley. It also helped to gather information on just how high the baseball ceiling may be once there is a full commitment to pitching.
"They have been telling me I have a chance to get drafted out of high school," Riley said. "They say you have to have a good summer, which I did, and then you need to have a good baseball season with your team. It's pretty cool.
"My mentality every time that I throw, every time that I go out there, I'm the best player on the field. Nobody is going to get a hit off of me."
A four-year varsity player on the diamond, it was traveling as a freshman and a crucial role on that 2019 team that alerted Wayne of his son's potential in baseball.
"The baseball coach at Hewitt puts the best kids on the field," he said. "So when he was closing as a freshman, I thought, 'Hey we probably have got something here.'
"Then this summer he excelled except for one bad outing, against future major league guys about to get drafted. Then he came back and did even better against them."
Courtesy of Wayne Quick
While the family is keeping an eye on any MLB draft prospects next summer, they get to widen their scope of fandom at Alabama. Fall will be spent following football with Pierce's development on the Crimson Tide offensive line before spring time on the diamond watching Riley fresh off of focusing on baseball from the New Year on.
"I'm very excited," Riley said. "I'm going to give my very best to Alabama baseball and try to make that team great. They're gonna be pretty good this year but I think my class is a really good class.
"We're gonna do big things there."