Friday, August 15, 2008

Justin Woodall ready to breakout??

The Tuscaloosa News had an article today discussing Justin Woodall, a junior safety from Lafayette Co. MS, and I found it very interesting. You can read the article here.

I am writing this to give those of you Tide fans a perspective from me. I coached against Justin for 4 years. I saw him as a freshmen pitcher throwing in the mid to high 80's and knew at that moment he was something special. His head coach, Richie Harralson, and I were friends and he kept telling me "This kid is gonna be special!". We played against him for 4 years and each time he threw the ball as well as any high school pitcher I have seen. He had a funky delivery and his fast ball was EXPLOSIVE! We played against Lafayette Co. in the Dizzy Dean World Series Championship game in 2005 and I knew there was no way we could just go out there and hit him and win. We had to rattle him and put some pressure on him. Our leadoff guy bunted for a hit, #2 guy bunted and we had 1st and 2nd then our #3 hitter then bunted for a base hit. With the bases loaded we got an infield cheap single and then there was an error and a walk. We ended up scoring 5 runs in the first without getting a ball out of the infield. We won the World Series and we only had 3 or 4 hits that game off him. We won 7-4 I believe. The whole point of that rambling was he was too good for us to hit him and win. He had the most uncanny and raw athletic ability of any kid I have ever seen on a baseball field and if any of you know me I have seen and coached against many stud high school athletes. Heck, I coached against Jay Bruce in an all star tourney and I still think Justin is a better athlete!

I believe he could pick up a golf club and be as good as most guys who have played for years. He is that good of a natural athlete! All he needs to do is refine his skills by listening to his coaches and have the right techniques and approach. When he was drafted by the Mets after high school, one of his coaches said he turned down a HUGE signing bonus to go to Alabama!

Anyways I just wanted to give you guys a little perspective from me and what I saw out of him in 4 years. I think he will do great things the next 2 years in the Capstone.

There you go Seymour! That was for you!


photo courtesy of Tuscaloosa News

1 comment:

Seymour said...

Thanks Buddy. But to be honest... True Freshman Safety Mark Barron is taking alot of snaps with the first team. Woodall should consider his baseball future. He is a GOOD football player with a GREAT fastball and he is left handed? Feel free to cover the Tide a little more, I like where you are heading...LOL!