Upstate New York Teen Leaves MLB Scouts With Jaws Open
How does a person know a high school baseball player is good? When a literal gaggle of Major League Baseball scouts shows up to watch him pitch and the kid doesn't even break a sweat.
Don't be surprised if in the next few years you hear the name Gavin Van Kempen being called to the pitching mound at the majors because this kid is turning all sorts of heads with his impressive pitching skills.
A senior at a school in the Albany area, Van Kempen was cool as a cucumber as he pitched his third-straight-no-hitter last week in front of the watchful eye of scouts from more than half of the teams in Major League Baseball, according to WTEN-TV.
17-year-old Van Kempen attends Maple Hill High School in the Schodack Central School District and has committed to West Virginia University but many believe he won't even set foot on campus and will, instead, get picked up right away in the upcoming Major League Baseball Draft and go straight to work on his professional baseball career.
Van Kempen told WTEN, "...I got to talk to my parents about what we want to do, college or pro, and moving forward we’ll make that decision.”
All of the attention could very quickly go to a person's head, especially a teenager's, but Van Kempen remains humble thanks in part to his coach who appreciates Van Kempen's athleticism, but keeps things in perspective saying, “... he’s obviously a special player but he’s no more important than anyone else on my team.”