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MATT GENTRY The Roanoke Times

Blacksburg High School graduate Eric Houff caught the attention of college recruits in his junior year.

MATT GENTRY The Roanoke Times

American Legion Post 68 left fielder Eric Houff practices in the batting cage at Radford Municipal Field. Houff will head to Emory and Henry this fall and play for the Wasps.

| By Chuck Altizer

Special to The Roanoke Times

The recruiting trail for a top-notch athlete can be an experience of a lifetime.

But there can also be a painful side to the dream of playing college sports while getting an education. Sometimes a student can get caught in the crossfire of it.

Just ask American Legion Post 68 and Blacksburg High School graduate Eric Houff, who put the scouts on notice with a huge junior-year season that exhibited power numbers.

Colleges at all levels started talking with the outfielder when he was a rising senior. But a funny thing happened on the way to a signing day.

For a variety of reasons, Houff had a tough start to his senior season. The senior came on at the end of the year, but the damage had been done. Collegiate teams filled up their rosters without offering the Bruins' multi-sport star a spot.

"I really don't know what happened," Houff said. "Obviously, I had better numbers my junior season, but I still took the same approach and same plan to the plate.

"Early in the year I got walked a lot and once that started to happen, I think I grew a little impatient and started swinging at stuff I shouldn't."

Now the Emory and Henry Wasps of the Division III Old Dominion Athletic Conference will grab what might be a steal in recruiting circles. Houff made up his mind this week that the Southwest Virginia school will be his college of choice, where he hopes to help a struggling program make history.

"Everything kind of clicked at Emory and Henry," he said. "After talking with their coaches, they are a very young team that hasn't done a lot in their history, so I hope I can come in and add a spark to their lineup and turn a bottom-of-the-conference team to a top-of-the-conference team and really turn things around for them."

Slipping through the cracks isn't uncommon in recruiting, but Houff's slip surprised his coaches and his teammates.

"I just told him to keep hitting. He can flat hit the ball," said American Legion teammate and Concord College sophomore Devin Smith. "In talking to him I told him not to go to a school for baseball but to look at all the factors."

Houff's American Legion coach knows he has the ability to succeed at college.

"The college coaches I talk to about players, the first question they ask me is about their attitude and discipline," said Greg Dudding, in his first season as head coach of the Post 68 team.

"Eric has something that is very special and I would like to commend him on his attitude and discipline."

With his college choice out of the way, Houff is focused on helping his New River teammates take care of some unfinished business.

A disappointing end to the 2008 season and their former coach in a battle with cancer has the Post 68 team working toward capturing its first ever district title.

After the 2008 season, coach Danny Evans was diagnosed with cancer and was unable to return this season. It was always Evans' goal to lead the team to a district championship, but last year's team fell short of the goal.

With seven of nine starters returning this year, the goal is the same.

"It's been really tough. Last year we really wanted to get him [Evans] the title and it was a shame we couldn't get it for him, but everyone is trying to get that for him this season," Houff said.

The title could be just as simple as catching the ball. Errors seem to be the Achilles' heel for Post 68 as its only two district losses this season have come when players committed more than two errors in a game.

"I told them at the beginning of the season that if we can have two errors or less each game with the way we are capable of hitting the ball, we will be tough to beat," Dudding said.

"They have a goal and they have a dream, the only question is can we please make that dream come true. Baseball is a lot like life. You have to earn everything you get, but I have to commend these boys' strong work ethic."

Concord College's Smith said the pieces are falling in place.

"It has been hard to practice because everybody's schedules are different and we are from different schools so haven't played a lot together," he said. "But we are getting used to each other each day and we are starting to adjust and hit our stride."

The fight for the legion title team begins July 17, when the district tournament opens in Salem.