Eli Craft’s winter plans have been the same since he was in fourth grade. He spent many weeknights and even long weekends traveling to basketball. It was a sport he found himself very fond of and also quite good at. This year, however, things are looking a little different for the Monticello senior.
At the end of Craft’s junior year, he was faced with a difficult decision. He decided to not play a sport he had grown so used to playing to maximize his potential in another. He gave up basketball to better pursue his baseball dreams.
Craft’s talents are easily seen on the baseball diamond. As the catcher, he was a staple in the varsity baseball team’s record setting lineup last season, batting .320 and hammering five big flies which was tied for the team high.
Craft explained his decision to quit basketball, “It wasn’t easy but I felt like if I was going to make the improvements I wanted to make on the field, it would start with me focusing my time into baseball fully. That would require me taking the winter months to workout instead of playing basketball.”
Craft has seen significant improvements since spending his time fully immersed in baseball, “I feel like I have gotten a lot stronger because of it. Playing basketball requires a lot of running and makes it very hard to gain weight and build muscle. Physically I feel like I have made lots of improvements.”
Craft stated he has big goals for this season. Last spring the Sages finished 32-5 and shattered school records in just about every statistical category. Eli has put in a lot of work on his own, preparing himself to reach his goals. “I want to do everything I can to help us win. I think deep down as a team our goal is to make it to State and maybe win it because last year we should have gone all the way.”
Eli will take his athletic talents to John A Logan Community College next fall. John A is a staple program in the Junior College baseball landscape, with multiple players going to power five division one schools and a few of them getting drafted to MLB teams.
Matt Swartz, Staff Writer
swama25@sages.us
The Sage Informer 
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