UA-Fort Smith had a run of standout first baseman over the past few seasons. That meant Brennan Rogers had to sit and wait. And wait.
Three years Rogers waited for his chance but once the Greenwood native got a chance, he never looked back.
"I got to sit behind some really good first basemen that were here before me in Gordon Miller and Christian Allen so I had some good older guys teach me the ropes," Rogers said.
Rogers leads the Lions in RBI, total bases and extra base hits. He added a pair of hits on Tues. to raise his batting average above .300 for the year.
"You always root for the guy that stays in there, keeps working every day and comes to the park and wins the job when it finally opens up and has excelled for us," UAFS coach Dale Harpenau said. "He’s played extremely well for us this year."
Rogers, like most college athletes, spends his summers trying to improve his game. He just does it a little different. Not only does Rogers put in work in the batting cage, he volunteers his time to help coach the Kerwins Sportsmen, an American Legion team based out of Fort Smith. Rogers played for Kerwins and just sees coaching as a way to give back.
"It’s a community thing," Rogers said. "There are good ball players around here that could use the help and experience from a college guy so I just try to help the people around here that want to play and get better in their time off in the summer. I just want to help them bring to the table what I can bring and make them better players also."
Trey Prieur has been the Sportsmen head coach for the past few summers and he said the addition of Rogers to the staff has been huge.
"He’s such a student of the game and he’s always just looking at ways to improve his own hitting so he takes what he’s learned and what he’s found out and relayed that to the kids and that’s been a big asset to us," Prieur said.