Tyler Daig winds up for a pitch during one of his appearances as a relief pitcher for the University of Mary Washington baseball team. (Contributed photo)
The Caroline Cavaliers have long had a legacy of athleticism in the world of high school sports. In recent years, with academic standards being set for students participating on teams, scholarship now affects an athletes’ performance. Tyler Daig, a 2012 Caroline High School and Commonwealth Governor’s School alumnus, personifies this concept.
Daig is now a relief pitcher for the University of Mary Washington, where he was recently named to the first team 2015 All Capital Athletic Conference. In addition Daig was selected to the first team 2015 Virginia Sports Information Directors College Division All-State Baseball Team. The honors received are the fruits of long years of playing baseball starting with the earliest levels available.
T-ball at the age of four was the first stop. Then came the progression through the Little League system in Caroline, playing in both the Minors and the Major leagues playing second base and pitching when he was eight or nine. When he was twelve, Daig began playing second base for a Travel ball team at the Virginia Sports Complex. He had the opportunity to practice with an older team his brother played for, often pitching for them. This experience paid off when Daig started playing for American Legion Ball for Post 206 out of Ashland. The comment was made the range of ages was from sixteen to nineteen years, and some of the people he played for and against were drafted into the professional ranks.
Middle school provided the first experience playing organized baseball for a school. While in the sixth grade, development was the main focus for his age bracket, practicing with the team but not playing in the games. Entering the seventh grade gave Daig the opportunity to move up to a bigger field and actually play and in the eighth grade, the team went undefeated.
High school brought with it a much faster game than in middle school. Daig’s experience over the years playing against older players paid off as he showed his talents with his infield play and some pitching. At the suggestion of head coach Frank Dow the end of his junior year at Caroline High School, he began to seriously concentrate on pitching as part of his preparation to play baseball at the college level.
“Coach Dow’s coaching was valuable in preparing to play at the next level. Success in baseball at the college level is faster, requiring mental toughness,” commented Daig. “You have to learn all the nuances of the game, what every action means.”
Training has become an activity that never stops. In the fall, when practices are held six times a week, the intensity builds up. In the winter, weight lifting is the order of the day. Throughout the training schedule, running is an important part of conditioning.
Camaraderie is said to be vital for any team, whether high school or college. In Daig’s senior year at Caroline High School, most of his teammates had been playing baseball together since they were four years old. At UMW, Daig commented, the players do everything together, from workouts to living together on campus and just being around each other. They provide their own intrasquad support system.
According to Daig, in addition to the faster game of baseball in college, academics are a large part of their world, as an athlete must maintain a 2.5 GPA. When on the road, players bring their books and work online to complete assignments. He stated that students who want to play on the college level need to develop a work ethic and mentally prepare themselves in high school, setting their priorities not only for baseball, but for their studies as well. It is not unusual for a gifted athlete to be recruited only to find himself an academic washout, losing out on the experience of NCAA athletics.
In high school Daig’s studies included attending the Commonwealth Governor’s School, which gave him enough extra credits to enter UMW as a junior instead of a freshman. Because he is working on Bachelor’s degrees in both geography and environmental sciences, along with a certification in Geographic Information Systems (GIS) technology, his college studies are taking the full four years, which complies with his four years of NCAA eligibility to play baseball.
Tyler Daig has taken both his athletic experience and the academic studies developed in Caroline County and has taken the next step in his pursuit of both, making the most of what lies before him.
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