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Show ft w I "- ... x I r L L J L r REED SECRIST Former Viewmont baseball star to suit up for Texas Longhorns Bv TOM HARALDSEN CENTER VILLE-Former Viewmont High baseball star Reed Secrist is taking his talents to the next level, and from his Austin, Texas, vantage point, anything is now possible. The 1988 graduate of Viewmont, recently graduated from Dixie College Col-lege in St. George whcVe he was a standout for the Rebels, left last Wednesday for the University of Texas on a full-ride baseball scholarship. schol-arship. He will join the Longhorns for their fall campaign which begins next month with a 70-game schedule. Secrist was an all-slate third baseman for the Vikes two seasons ago, helping Viewmont into the state tournament and earning MVP honors in the annual 4-A All Star Game in Ogden. He moved to centerfleld in St. George, and, though he missed the infield, responded by earning all-conference all-conference honors twice, Ail-American Ail-American honors once, and batting well over .300 both seasons. As a freshman, Secrist, son of Tom and Sherri Secrist of Kays-ville, Kays-ville, hit .381 with 14 home runs. This past spring, he hit .354 with 14 more homers, and drew 62 walks against 140 at bats, a sign of the respect he drew from opposing pitchers. pit-chers. A scout for Texas coach Cliff Gustafson watched Secrist play ball this summer in a semi-pro league, and immediately 'offered him a scholarship. By Reed's own admisTn sion, the signing of Texas high school pitching phenomenon, Todd Van Poppel, by the Oakland A's was a big factor. "Coach Gustafson had told me earlier that he was interested in me, but said he wasn't sure how much money in scholarships he had left. After Todd signed, a scholarship opened up, and they offered it to me," he explained. Reed had narrowed his collegiate choices to Texas, Arizona and William Penn of Iowa, though he was also approached by Arizona State and Nevada-Reno. A teammate team-mate of his at Dixie, former Bountiful Boun-tiful High star Sid Smith, recently signed a letter of intent to play at Memphis State this fall as well. Once in Austin, Secrist and his fellow Longhorns will endure six-hour six-hour daily practices, sessions almost always observed by pro scouts. With only one other left-handed left-handed hitter on the club, his chances of starting are excellent. He took up baseball at the age of eight, playing in leagues in Farm-ington Farm-ington and Bountiful, where he was bom. The Secrists have four children, Rick, who played at Davis High and CEU; Sally, a former high i school basketball player currently on an LDS mission in the Philippines, Philip-pines, and Ryan, a junior this year at Viewmont. Secrist played football and baseball at Davis High as a sophomore, then started at quarterback quarter-back for the Darts as a junior before transferring to Viewmont where he excelled on the diamond as a senior. He credits his father Tom with "being my biggest influence. He's stuck with me, pushed me when I needed it, things like that." Last year, Tom Secrist missed only one game of Reed's in St. George. A career in professional baseball seems a certainty, and the majors seem well within reach for Reed, a lifelong St. Louis Cardinals fan. Whether it's within the Cardinals organization or not, Reed Secrist's bat stands to make a lot of noise in the baseball seasons ahead. |