MLB Draft Recap With Harrison Cooney Interview

Photo courtesy of Linwood Ferguson

 The 2013 MLB Draft ended with six Eagles being selected. Led by Harrison Cooney, the 187th pick, FGCU Baseball had a great representation at this year's draft, tying the previous record (6) of FGCU players taken in one draft 2006.

"It was such a relief...once my name got called it was pretty awesome. It was a pretty surreal moment in my life," said Harrison Cooney.
The first five FGCU players drafted were all juniors which shows how great of a job the Eagles staff does at developing their players.

"The work ethic is definitely one of the main things, getting up at 6:00 a.m every morning in the fall, really long practices...it really simulates what it is it like in pro ball," Cooney said.

This hard work put in by the FGCU Baseball squad is shown not only in the draft but by the sweep of Florida and a late season ten game winning streak.

It sounds familiar but FGCU's athletic success will have a long lasting impact.

"Its awesome, its definitely going to help with recruiting down the road.  Also, people who cover college baseball are going to see how many players are being drafted from FGCU," Cooney said.

Eagles already in the pros are White Sox' ace Chris Sale and the Cubs' Casey Coleman. As every baseball players' dream is to make it the big leagues, this helps out FGCU recruitment immensely.

The FGCU recruiting class already features great players such as Mario Leon and Sterling Koerner but future recruiting for Dave Tollett will be made a lot easier because of this years draft. Tollett is the founder of FGCU Baseball and has put tremendous amounts of working into building this program from the ground up and everyone from player to coaches to fans has reaped the rewards.

FGCU Players Drafted:
Round 6 Pick 21 (187th Overall): Harrison Cooney [Angels]
Round 7 Pick 26 (222th Overall): Brandon Bednar [Giants]
Round 8 Pick 9 (236 Overall): Rick Knapp [Mets]
Round 11 Pick 3 (319th Overall): Sean Dwyer [Rockies]
Round 16 Pick 4 (470th Overall): Brandon Bixler [Twins]
Round 21 Pick 9 (625th Overall): Mike Reeves [Blue Jays]

"Seeing these guys get a chance to live their dream, its pretty awesome," Cooney said.

*Kyle Buchanan was selected 1214st (Yankees) but did not play for FGCU due to injury.