HOPE — All of the long hours of practice and hard work has officially paid off in a big way for Hauser senior Jackson Paradise.
Paradise is in a very small class of high school athletes that can get to call themselves a collegiate athlete.
On Wednesday, Paradise made it official by signing his letter of intent to play baseball at University of St. Francis at a ceremony at Hauser High School.
Paradise said his first interaction with Cougars head coach Dustin Butcher was one of the reasons that sold him on St. Francis.
"I could tell that me and him were going to have a good relationship. Then, I went on my visit there, and it’s a beautiful campus," Paradise said. "I knew outside of baseball that it was going to be a really good fit for me. It’s not too far from home, which is a really good thing for me, too. It was the overall aspect of it that made me want to go there."
Paradise, who currently is playing basketball for the Jets, plans to study sports management at St. Francis.
"The caliber of a kid Jackson is, it sets a great example for our young kids coming up all the way from junior high, all the way up to the high school kids he plays with," Hauser baseball coach Nathan Long said. "(It’s) them seeing the work he puts in on and off the field during the season and the offseason and what the reward is and what the rewards are for kids that are willing to put in the work and what it takes to get there. It’s great for Jackson, it’s great for our program and for all those kids to see that."
