Ryan Griffin '17 Recruiting Profile

    I am Ryan Griffin, a senior at Buford High School in rural Lancaster, South Carolina. My intentions are to attend a junior college where I can continue to play baseball while completing a welding or architectural program. I am very artistic and thoroughly enjoy the outdoors in addition to playing baseball.

    My baseball endeavors began at the age of three, when I began by playing T-ball. I have played on one or more teams every year since that time. I joined a travel team at age nine. During the six years that we played together as either the Carolina Heat or the LA Guns, our team was ranked in the top three AA teams for three of the six years. My travel baseball coach became the local American Legion coach, where I currently continue to play. I played in the Dixie Baseball organization from age 9 to 16. I was on a Dixie All-Star team every year except age 11 when I had seriously cut my leg at the beginning of the season. Our All-Star teams advanced to the state play-offs five different years. Of those years, the team finished second runner-up one year (2011) and first runner-up two years (2012, 2013). Each of those three years, Sumter, South Carolina ended our dreams of playing in the Dixie Baseball World Series.

    My rural AA high school team has been blessed with baseball talent for the past three years. During my sophomore year, the varsity team went undefeated during the regular season with a team composed of six seniors and eleven juniors- many of which are currently playing on college teams. As a freshman and sophomore, I remained on the junior varsity team to maintain a starting position, and was pulled up to the varsity team once the junior varsity season ended. I was the junior varsity MVP my sophomore year. There were ten seniors on the team my junior year. As the catcher, I was a non-senior player that maintained a starting position. As a senior this up-coming season, I have been told that I will have a dual role as a pitcher and primary catcher. But, my responsibilities will not end there. I will also need to be a leader and a positive role model for the younger players that will fill the positions of the ten seniors that we lost last year. My senior year may not be my high school’s most successful season, but my goal is for it to be my best personal baseball season.