By Jack Davis

Baseball player Austin Wilson ’10 was featured on the cover of ESPN Rise, a regional high school sports magazine.

The magazine was published and distributed throughout the state last week and free copies were offered in a box outside of Seaver.

The article described Wilson’s dedication to schoolwork and how he strives to find a balance between baseball and grades.

“One of his teachers described him as just about perfect in every way, and that’s hard to live up to. Then you meet him and it’s hard to find any flaws. He’s straight out of central casting for a student-athlete,” Wilson’s dean Sharon Cuseo was quoted as saying in the article.

“He’s such a great kid off the field, so well-liked and he gets along with everybody,” baseball Head Coach Matt LaCour was quoted as saying in the article.

Wilson has committed to play baseball at the collegiate level for Stanford University but still has the option of forgoing college and playing professional baseball.

The Major League Baseball draft is in June and many pundits have pegged Wilson as a first round pick, with potential to rise as high as a top five pick.

“Regardless of what happens, I will still need another job after baseball and I want to succeed in that job,” Wilson said in the story.

The article also detailed Wilson’s down-to- earth personality and how he has remained the same despite all the attention that comes with being such a high profile athlete.

“He hasn’t changed one bit since he got this attention. He doesn’t think he’s better then anyone or deserves more then anyone,” Wilson’s teammate Andrew Shanfeld ’10 was quoted as saying in the article.

Wilson was named a pre-season All-American and over the summer participated in the prestigious Under Armor All-American Game and the Aflac All-American game.

Wilson gained publicity for hitting a home run at the Under Armour game, at famed Wrigley Field, off the number four ranked pitcher in the nation.

Former New York Mets general manager Steve Phillips was announcing the game, which was televised by ESPN, and after Wilson’s homerun exclaimed, “That was a shot.”

Wilson participated in his first invitational event as a junior, when he went to the Southern California Invatational, a showcase featuring the best Californian high school baseball players.

The event was the day after Wilson’s birthday, yet he stayed home on his birthday in order to be prepared for the showcase.

“My friends wanted me to go out, but I knew I had a big day the next day,” Wilson said in the article.