Pace High School senior, Tyler Sharp will officially play college baseball for the University of West Florida.
Pace administrators believe Pace’s loss is UWF’s gain.
“Tyler is a blue collar kid, he comes to work hard every day. I think he fits the mold of a University of West Florida type of team,” said Charlie Warner, Pace’s athletic director. “He is not going to be outworked by anybody; that is the kind of player you win championships with.”
Warner previously coached Sharp while serving as the school’s baseball coach. The school’s current baseball coach, Jason McBride wants Sharp’s senior year to benefit the baseball team this season.
“He means a lot to our program, being a three-year starter at shortstop,” McBride said. “We still have one more year with him and we don’t want to give him up quite yet.”
“He is going to be our workhouse on the mound and I plan on him being our leadoff hitter…and playing short stop,” McBride said. “It’s hard to pick which one his strength is.”
Like Warner, McBride believes UWF’s baseball program will benefit from Sharp.
“He is a good student and a good athlete,” McBride said. “I think he is going to do well at UWF.”
While Sharp is thankful for everything he has learned from his father, Mike and the coaches at Pace, he still wants to enhance the way he plays the game.
“Just because I have been taught well, doesn’t mean I can’t learn more,” Sharp said. “I want to try and always learn better approaches to the game and better methods. In the long run it will help me out.”
While, Sharp is looking forward to playing for the Argonauts in the future, Tyler does have a goal set for his senior year.
“We got one more thing to do here and that’s when a state championship for Pace High School,” Sharp said.
This article originally appeared on Santa Rosa Press Gazette: Pace High School’s Tyler Sharp opts for UWF