A player that plays particularly hard and is willing to sacrifice his body to make a play is known as a gamer.
Former Oak Hill shortstop Zane Wolfe is the personification of a gamer.
“Zane is a baseball guy. He is a very smart, intelligent player and he plays the game extremely hard. He was a leader for us this year,” Oak Hill head baseball coach Matt Boyd said. “He was super aggressive on the bases and just a solid, solid baseball player.”
“My first year here, he won the sectional for us. He stole third and when they overthrew third, he went home. That is the type of player that he is. Zane picked something up on the pitcher and did that all on his own.”
Wolfe’s hard-driving, aggressive style of play made him a standout high school player. Now the former Red Devil has been granted the opportunity to take his style of play to the next level.
Friday afternoon, surrounded by family, friends, coaches and teammates Wolfe signed a National Letter of Intent to play baseball for WVU Tech.
“My emotions are all over the place today. This has been a dream of mine for years and years,” Wolfe said. “This is one step of the dream, so to be able to put the pen on the paper and make it official, it is just unreal.”
Although it had long been his dream to play at the next level, Wolfe was not sure prior to his final high school season if he indeed wanted to keep playing.
“If you had asked me six months ago, I would have probably said I was done playing baseball after high school. I had played a lot of baseball and I was working and making some money,” Wolfe explained. “I thought that would be my best choice and honestly, before Tech, nobody was looking at me. If I went anywhere, I would have to walk on. I didn’t really want to do that.”
A little time away from the game over the summer reignited the fire and when Tech came calling, Wolfe was not about to pass on a chance to live out his dream.
“I love the sport of baseball and it would have been hard to give that up. Tech gave me the opportunity and it was an easy decision,” Wolfe said.
WVU Tech assistant coach Joe Goddard, who is a member of the Marshall University Athletics Hall of Fame and played professionally for the San Diego Padres, had long been impressed with the talented Oak Hill shortstop.
“According to coach Goddard, he had been looking at me for a few years,” Wolfe said. “For someone to notice you that has been where he has been in the sport of baseball, that is amazing. To be on a team with him on the coaching staff and him knowing so much is another great opportunity for me.”
While the Sports Management major is ecstatic for the opportunity to play college baseball, he is well aware that he has work to do to be successful.
“Really I need to get better at everything. I think I can improve my arm strength, gain some weight and ultimately get stronger,” Wolfe said. “I also need to work on my hitting. I got away with hitting ground balls to the other side in high school, but that is not something you can get away with in college. I want to work on hitting line drives the other way instead of ground balls.”
Wolfe is convinced that he can play at the next level and so is his high school coach who sees a possible position change for the newest Golden Bear.
“For us he played shortstop, I feel like at the next level he may be a second baseman. He has the tools, but he will need to work on being consistent every day,” Boyd said. “I told him he didn’t have to make all of the spectacular plays, but make the routine plays. The guys at the next level are consistent and they are there everyday.”
