Optometry, baseball lure BV’s Ryan to Nova Southeastern
Daily Breeze staff report, breezesports@breezenewspapers.com
Four-year varsity baseball letter-winner Ryan York secured his collegiate future Thursday afternoon by signing a national scholarship letter-of-intent to play baseball at Nova Southeastern University in Fort Lauderdale.
York, a catcher, completed his Bishop Verot High School senior season batting .360 with three home runs and 24 RBI. It raises his career stats to .291, 8 HR, 55 RBI.
The Vikings won district championships in 2006 and 2008 during York’s career.
“Coach (Tom) LoSauro talked to several different schools for me over the past two years,” said York. “It wasn’t until last month that I got to visit Nova and the coaching staff. They let me go in the dugout and watch a game where I got to see how they ran the team, which was a lot like Coach LoSauro.”
York, who made the trek to Bishop Verot after moving from Cape Coral to Alva with his parents, Ron and Denise York, had offers to attend two other schools — Stetson and Air Force Academy — in addition to trying to walk-on at Florida Gulf Coast.
“I was interested in going to Air Force, but I wasn’t able to because they couldn’t qualify me for their offer. I also played football and had too many concussions to qualify,” he said. “The real determining factor, though, was I will have dual admission at Nova for the pre-optometry program. It’s the only school in Florida to offer it.”
York, who attended St. Andrew’s Catholic School in the Cape, said he will miss hanging out with his Verot teammates and friends, especially other four-year varsity teammates Austin Flores and Josh Hinkle, when he reports to Nova Southeastern.
“I’ll also miss Coach LoSauro and especially (assistant coach) Nick “The Greek” Siemasz, who always was encouraging us as freshmen and throughout our four years here.”