Steve Sarkisian and Jim Schlossnagle excited to share this new Longhorns two-sport signee starting in January
Youth sports is big business these days, and teenagers are pushed toward picking one sport as they get older. Galveston Ball’s Jonah Williams bucked that trend, and the new UT signee will roam all over the Texas athletic facilities playing both football and baseball. The football program announced Williams’ signing as part of the 24 […]
Youth sports is big business these days, and teenagers are pushed toward picking one sport as they get older.
Galveston Ball’s Jonah Williams bucked that trend, and the new UT signee will roam all over the Texas athletic facilities playing both football and baseball.
The football program announced Williams’ signing as part of the 24 new Longhorns on Wednesday. Baseball coach Jim Schlossnagle said Williams will enroll this January and immediately join his squad at UFCU Disch-Falk Field.
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“I’m a huge fan of multi-sport athletes,” Schlossnagle said on Longhorn Network. “The whole baseball only thing, or sport-specific players, it happens more and more these days. But I specifically love coaching football players.
“Baseball players play a lot of games, but they actually don't practice that much,” he added. “As an amateur player, you’re only going to get better through repetition and through practice. And football players really understand that. So excited to have Jonah join us.”
Schlossnagle noted that Williams is close to being medically cleared from a broken collarbone injury suffered in a game on Oct. 25. “We’ll see what kind of shape he's in when he gets here,” Schlossnagle said.
Schlossnagle joked that by getting Williams in January, the 6-foot-3, 207-pound standout will miss the Major League Baseball draft window.
“Baseball recruiting is very different,” Schlossnagle said. “We’ve signed 16 guys in the fall. Most of those guys are super high-profile players and with high reward comes high risk. And we’re going to continue to recruit those guys.
“We’re going to sell them not just on playing baseball at Texas, but playing baseball in college and playing baseball in the SEC and how for the overwhelming majority of players, it’s actually faster. It’s a faster route to the major leagues by playing in college.
“So we’ve just got to convince those guys and hopefully they see it and they want the experience of playing here as a Longhorn and playing in the SEC.”
