By Andrew Cato, ShowMe Times Sports Editor

Summer for the typical high school student is spent teetering on a fine line between relaxation and laziness. Some will get jobs, and some will have camps for their sport in the upcoming school year.

For one incoming DHS junior, his summers are anything but typical. He spends days on the road, traveling from showcase to camp to tournament, and then home for a day or two. He’s been home for one weekend this summer. His name is Chase Young.

Chase is the 16 year old son of Marty and Christine Young. He was an everyday starter for the ‘Cats on the baseball field during his sophomore season, and started several games during his freshman season. He has a career .496 batting average, .573 slugging percentage, .560 on-base percentage, and 17 stolen bases.

Impressed so far?

That’s just one sport - Young is a three-sport athlete for the ‘Cats.

He was a big part of the most successful Bearcat football season in recent memory, and made several crucial plays at wideout during the post-season run. He also led the JV basketball team to a very successful season, and received respectable playing time at the varsity level, but Young still notes baseball as his favorite.

”Baseball is my favorite sport; it’s what I’m best at it,” he said. “I’ve always liked playing basketball, and I’m pretty good at football, but I like baseball the best. I’ve played since I was a little kid.”

“Church, classes, and sports...that’s all he really has time for,” Young’s father, Marty - who was a collegiate athlete at Freed-Hardman and coached at UT Martin - said. The time Young spends in athletics has never impeded his studies - he’s in the top 10 percent of his class with a 3.8 GPA, and has already posted a 26 on the ACT.

If you think that all the time he spends on the road during the summer would eventually begin to wear on him, you’re dead wrong.

“I don’t ever get tired of it,” Young said, smiling. “It’s what I love to do; it’s what I know.”

For the last several summers, Young has been a member of the Rawlings Prospects - Harper, a nationwide club baseball team. So far this summer, the ‘Spects have posted an impressive 37-6 record, most recently competing in the Premier World Series in Lubbock, Texas. Young noted some well-known names - such as Rafel Palmero and Roger Clemens - as fathers of players on an opposing team.

“There were 48 teams there, probably the best 48 teams in the country at this level,” Young recalled. “Most of the teams from Texas, but some were from as far as Wisconsin.”

“We played three full games and then we got seeded - we went 2-1 in that pool. The top 24 teams were sent to the championship bracket, the bottom 24 went to the consolation bracket. We played three more pool games, and then the winner of each pool would go to the final eight. We went 3-0 in the championship pool and were seeded fourth. We beat the D-Bat Mustangs, who beat us in pool play, and came back to win 10-0.”

Young wasn’t the only Bearcat to compete for the Prospects - teammate Jordan Miller is also a member of the team.

“Jordan did well; he won a game for us when he pitched,” Young said of his teammate. “When you play eight games in five days, you go through a lot of pitchers. He stepped in at second some and did well there too; he played really well during the entire tournament.”

Young also had a solid going over at the plate and making several great defensive plays.

The ‘Spects would go on to finish third in the tournament.

“Looking through the alumni lists on some of these teams, it’ll make your head spin,” Marty said. The Mustangs, for example, had 27 players selected in the MLB Draft, and 58 players signed collegiate letters of intent in 2011.

Despite typically finding Chase in a middle-infield position during games for DHS, he plays centerfield for the ‘Spects.

“With his speed, center is a better fit for him at the collegiate level,” Marty said.

Chase definitely has speed - and plenty of it. He’s been clocked at a 4.45 in the 40-yard dash, a 6.8 in the 60, and a 3.75 home to first.

“I like playing centerfield more,” Young said, “it feels more natural to me than second does.”

Young has also been selected to play in the Midwest Future Games, sponsored by Under Armour and the Prep Baseball Report.

“The No. 26 ranked Class of 2013 player, Young recently put himself on the map at Prep Baseball Report’s Top Prospect Showcase in Cape Girardeau. The 5-foot-10, 165-pound utility player ran an event-best 6.83 60, showed off a strong arm (78 mph) from the outfield, and proved to be one of the better overall athletes in attendance. At the plate, the left-handed hitting Young uses a short, level swing to drive the ball gap-to-gap and is an extra-base threat,” Young’s profile on the event’s website said.


The Midwest Future Games will feature the best players from Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, and Missouri.


“This weekend we’re going to the Midwest Futures game in Chicago,” Young said. “The Prep Baseball Report did a showcase that I went to at Notre Dame. Me, Tanner Murphy from Malden and Drew Harper from Sikeston were invited to it. You represent your state and play at Benedictine University. One day we do a showcase and play a few games. The next day we play a few more games and then head home.”

Despite all the accolades and constantly being surrounded by major college scouts - LSU, TCU, Mizzou, Nebraska, Arkansas, Texas, and Baylor, to name a few, all had scouts at Young’s last tournament - Marty has always tried to keep his sons grounded.


“Something that I’ve always instilled Chase and Chandler is our ‘family motto’: play hard, pray hard, work hard, and love your family,” Marty said. “I think that’s taken them a long way, and will continue to. I’ve also tried to instill a sense of humility and ‘coachability’ into them.”


“It’s been kinda hard to be humble with all the attention that I’ve gotten because of showcases,” Young said, “but my Dad has pushed that sense of humility into me since I was a little kid. It’s definitely something that’s a challenge, but I try hard every day to remember it.”

With hard work and keeping with his ‘family motto’, this young man will continue to do great things, not only on the baseball field, but in life. Chase plans to major in pre-medicine when he gets to college, but hopefully he’ll be able to get paid doing what he loves: playing baseball.