Bo may have known baseball and football, but he’s a sport short
of Gilroy High senior Kevin Grove.
Bo may have known baseball and football, but he’s a sport short of Gilroy High senior Kevin Grove.
Grove, a 6-foot-2-inch, 190-pound senior, has Mr. Jackson beat by one more football, or futbol, depending on who you’re talking to. In an era when many young athletes are starting to stick to one sport, tossing aside other athletic endeavors to get the most out of one, Grove is an athlete for all seasons. This year he is one of only five individuals at GHS to play a varsity sport in the fall, winter and spring. What makes Grove so unique, though, is not that he was a kicker in football, a sweeper in soccer and now plays outfield as well as pitches for the baseball team. It’s that he does all of those things at a clip above the competition.
“I think Kevin is one of those wonderful people in life that can do anything he wants to,” GHS football coach Rich Hammond said. “If he decided he wanted to be a receiver, he would have been one of our top receivers. If he wanted to be a safety, he would have been one of our top safeties.”
Instead, Grove was the Mustangs’ best kicker in years, in just his first year playing, evidenced by a 43-yard field goal he made in a 38-22 playoff win over Valley Christian. He topped off the performance with his only tackle of the season, a de-cleater on a kickoff return.
The reason Grove didn’t play other positions in football was because he needed to stay healthy for two more seasons of sports. He was named the Tri-County Athletic League co-MVP for soccer in February, and now is a clear-cut leader on the baseball team. The UC Davis-bound ballplayer currently leads the 7-6 Mustangs in RBI, and is tied for the team lead in home runs (3) and doubles (4) as of Thursday.
Part of what has helped Grove excel in all three sports is the fact that he is constantly competing in some athletic arena.
“They kind of go hand in hand together,” Grove said, “because in baseball you get to use your speed and agility from soccer.”
On top of his work on the field, pitch, and diamond, Grove also maintains a 3.82 GPA in the classroom.
“He’s not just a great athlete,” soccer coach Armando Padilla said. “The kid just embodies what a student-athlete is – all the dedication he puts not only into the classroom, but into a sport.”
Over the course of the school year, Grove has been training roughly 25 hours per week. Somewhat of a break considering during the summertime Grove was playing on two baseball teams, a traveling soccer club and attending clinics and college showcases. His ability to handle everything in stride has shown a maturity beyond his years.
“He always does the little things that most people don’t do, and that’s usually the difference between an average player and a top player,” Padilla said, adding that he thought Grove could play Division I soccer if he wanted. “People think it’s just pure talent, but it’s also a lot of heart and dedication.”
An example of this passion would be that on top of his in-season training for football and soccer, Grove was working once a week with a hitting coach to make sure he could transition smoothly to baseball.
While UC Davis’ football program has been showing interest in Grove kicking for the team, something he hasn’t ruled out entirely, it looks like this will be the last year he has to buy three different types of cleats. His favorite sport, baseball, will be what he focuses on from here on out.
“Ever since I was little, ‘Big League’ dreams,” Grove said of his hope to someday play Major League Baseball.
If that day comes, Grove would be just a kick away from doing something Bo knows plenty about.
