College of the Redwoods baseball added some more local talent earlier this week with the program signing Eureka High senior Royce Olson.
Olson wasn’t sure if he’d even pursue college baseball initially but after meeting with and getting to know CR head coach John Downey, Olson decided against hanging up the cleats and will play for the Corsairs.
“I didn’t know if I was going to be able to continue my baseball journey at the next level and just these past couple weeks with our baseball season starting back up,” Olson said. “I just couldn’t see myself without baseball.”
The two first met through an online recruitment app, FieldLevel. Once Olson spoke with Downey and visited CR’s facilities, he felt confident that CR baseball was right for him.
“I just like the way that he is planning to rebuild CR and the way that he runs stuff around there with the new era of baseball,” Olson said of Downey. “It’s close to home; I have some buddies over there and I like what’s going on. I’d just love to rebuild and put us on the map.”
CR is currently 5-15 on the season ahead of their weekend series against Lassen, with Downey in his first season of head coaching the Corsairs. Olson’s signing adds to the collection of former H-DNL players on Downey’s roster, with seven local players this year.
“We love our local guys. There’s a lot of really, really good local talent here,” Downey said. “We strive to bring those guys in, help them out and develop the best we can both on and off the field.”
Not only is Olson the type of player that Downey is looking for, but he’s also the type of person that he’s looking for to fill his roster.
“I got a lot of good information about him from guys that have played with him before,” Downey said of Olson. “Guys like Tyson Bragg, Seth Grammer were both big on him. As well as the word I got from his coach too. (I) talked to Tommy Gale over at Eureka High explaining how good of a kid he is.”
Olson bats and throws left-handed and he might be asked to both pitch and hit at the collegiate level but they’ll come to a final decision about whether he’ll be a two-way player once he gets to College of the Redwoods.
“We looked at him athletically as doing both of those things for us,” Downey said. “It takes an elite focus and an elite commitment to the process. Somebody like Royce, from what we’ve heard, from what we’ve seen and the conversations we’ve had with him, we believe that he can do that. He’s an elite worker.”
Before Olson heads to CR, he’s still got his senior season with Eureka. The Loggers haven’t been able to get too many games so far this season because of rain but are currently 2-3 on the season before they dive into Big 5 league play next week.
“I want to win the league championship and go win the Lakin Tournament championship and then go see what we do in playoffs,” Olson said of his goals for his senior year after finishing second to McKinleyville in both. “It’s pretty frustrating because we knew we were better than that. We didn’t play up to our standard but we’re coming for it all this year.”
Olson has also learned a lot from Gale, his current head coach, about what it takes to find success at the next level.
“He’s been there. He’s been at that next level, he played D-1 baseball, he’s also played pro baseball so he kind of shares his journey with us,” Olson said of Gale. “He helps us make sure that baseball is a lot more than just a sport, there’s the mental side of it.”
Staying with CR also allows Olson to play in front of friends, family and former teammates, something that wouldn’t be as accessible elsewhere.
“That’s the biggest part,” Olson said. “I’m a big family guy and I just love to put on a show for my hometown.”
Dylan McNeill can be reached at 707-441-0526.
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