re: Baseball Recruiting Discussion

Article from TBS on getting Stokes but losing Bryant: Crazy day in Baseball Recruiting

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Stokes committed to The Citadel shortly after his sophomore season to play with his older brother, Johnathan Stokes, who is the starting shortstop for the Bulldogs.

Clemson and North Carolina were the first two schools to contact Stokes with South Carolina following closely behind. Reason being, recruiting coordinator Sammy Esposito waited to speak to an assistant coach at The Citadel before making any contact.

The 6-foot-3, 200-pounder visited South Carolina several times unofficially, including for the first scrimmage of the fall and on Tuesday, a visit that solidified Stokes’ decision to come to South Carolina.

In the end, Stokes picked South Carolina over North Carolina and The Citadel. The Tar Heels were very close to nabbing a commitment prior to Stokes’ visit this week. Stokes also never eliminated the Bulldogs from consideration, even after he decommitted.

South Carolina head coach Chad Holbrook made an in-home visit to see Bryant last week. The parties conversed about early playing time and it wasn’t something that Holbrook was ready to promise.

Following the in-home visit, Bryant and his father traveled to Columbia on Sunday to watch the Gamecocks go through their sixth scrimmage of the fall. That night, Bryant informed several of the commitments that he was going to reopen his recruitment the following day.

The departure should have minimal effect on South Carolina.

When Bryant waivered on his commitment, the South Carolina staff was OK with him looking around. It was a difficult decision for Holbrook to make though as there are close ties between the families. Chad Holbrook’s father, Eddie, is a former head basketball coach at Furman. KJ Bryant’s father, Kevin Sr., played for Eddie Holbrook in the Paladins program.

Bryant's decommitment also opened the door for South Carolina to put the full court press on Stokes.

At one point during the spring, Bryant almost decommitted to go to Furman. The prevailing thought is that is was where he would land after backing off his pledge to South Carolina. From what I can gather, there isn’t a lot of ill will from the Gamecocks’ side of things.

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ETA: OP has also been update to view the current '14/'15 class & targets.