ROCKINGHAM – Garet Weigman, a junior on the Richmond Senior High School baseball team, has been named the Official Richmond County Male Athlete of the Week presented by McNair Auto Sales.
With the Raiders off to a quick 2-0 start on the season, Weigman had a big day at the plate Saturday against non-conference opponent Terry Sanford High School, as his timely hitting and heads up base running helped earn the Raiders the win and him this week’s nomination.
Athletic Profile
Name: Garet Weigman
Age: 17
Year: Junior
Spring Sport: Baseball
Positions: Catcher, Outfield, Pitcher
Years on Varsity: 1.5 years
Height & Weight: 6’0”, 185 pounds
Experience: 13 years
RSHS Academics: Weigman is currently enrolled in the Advanced Placement cluster at Richmond Senior High School, and he has a full schedule this spring semester. The two AP courses he’s in are AP English and AP Environmental Science, both of which he enjoys. Other classes he’s taking are Honors U.S. History, Honors Pre-Calculus and Weight Training.
Though he finds Weight Training to be his favorite class, he also tends to enjoy Ms. Garner’s AP English Class. Weigman has a 3.4 GPA, and is an A/B student.
“English is my favorite class,” said the junior ball player. “Ms. Garner is a great teacher and I really like what we’re doing in class right now. We’re reading a book called “The Last Child” by John Hart. It’s pretty good and I don’t mind reading.”
RSHS Sports: Affectionately known as “Wiggy” by his Raider baseball teammates, Weigman’s primary sport through middle school and high school has always been baseball. But over the winter, he and several of his fellow ball players, including Tyler Bass, Zach Hinson, Evan Hudson and Justin Ingram, joined the Richmond bowling team. Weigman bowled consistently enough to be the team’s No.3 bowler.
“I just thought it would be a fun sport to get into,” Weigman explained. “Me and a couple of my baseball teammates just gave it a try and we did pretty well. I treated bowling a lot like baseball – in the sense that I was competitive and wanted to win.
Hobbies: When Weigman isn’t practicing his pitching, hitting in the cage or doing drills on the diamond, he can be found hanging out with his friends, most of whom are on the baseball team. Whenever it’s not baseball season, one of his favorite things to do is play pickup basketball with his buddies.
“I also like to work out in the gym,” Weigman stated, adding that it helps keep him in shape for baseball season. “And I play a lot of video games, mostly sports games like Madden, NBA 2K and MLB The Show. But I also like to play Fortnite.”
Though he doesn’t participate in any extracurricular activities at school, Weigman noted that he plans on doing some volunteering around the community in his spare time.
Interesting Fact: Most of the former Official Richmond County Athletes of the Week have expressed some interesting facts such as reading classic literature, writing poetry and even watching cartoons in Japanese without subtitles to try and figure out what’s being said by what’s happening on screen. Weigman, on the other hand, chose an interesting fact that hasn’t been mentioned before.
“I like to collect a lot of pairs of American Eagle underwear,” he said with a smile. “I don’t know why – it’s just something I started doing. I like the designs.”
College Aspirations: While he’s still got some time to decide where he’d like to attend college, Weigman’s goal is to play baseball at a four-year university and earn a degree in Business Management. To this point, the University of Charleston in West Virginia, a private college, as well as several community colleges in Maryland have expressed interest in him playing baseball for them. But Weigman is holding out to see what other types of offers he can procure over the next two baseball seasons.
“My dream would be to play baseball at UNCW or Appalachian State,” Weigman said of the two universities that have great baseball programs. “I want to go into Business Management because I may be interested in running my own business some day.
“I like running things, and leading people,” he added, “just like I do on the baseball field.”
Mentors: For his mentors, Weigman chose his mother, Shawn, and his father, Gary. He says that both of them have been a strong support system for him throughout his life both in baseball and life in general.
“My parents have taught me to work hard,” Weigman noted. “They’ve shown me that nothing comes easy and I have to work for everything I want to achieve. And I try to live by that, on and off the baseball field.”
Player of the Week Stats: As noted by head coach Ricky Young in the team’s season preview, the Raiders are healthy and looking to get ahead early. Weigman did just that in the team’s first two games, reaching base in all four plate appearances. He’s currently batting .1000, most notably having roped an RBI double during the first inning of the team’s 6-5 win over Terry Sanford High School on Saturday. In the same game, Weigman lined a leadoff single to left field in the fifth inning. A poor pickoff attempt by the pitcher allowed him to race to third base and eventually score the tying run on a Braxton Furstein sacrifice fly.
During preseason scrimmages, Weigman also showed off his arm strength by picking off a couple of runners from behind the plate.
The team is healthy heading into the year – how are you feeling personally? And what damage can the Raiders do this season?
“I’m feeling great,” Weigman said. “I feel the best I’ve ever felt strength and performance wise. And I want to help the team any way I can, whether that’s in the dugout or on the field.
“Our team this year is a really good hitting and pitching team,” he continued. “We can do a lot of damage, and our goal is to win the conference championship. And obviously try to win a state championship, too.”
What’s the best part about playing the game of baseball?
“The best part for me is knowing that the odds are stacked against you,” Weigman explained. “You’re a Hall of Famer if you can go three-for-10 and bat .300 in your career. But I never set a limit for myself. I always try to be better than where people set the bar.”
Coach’s Corner: Richmond head coach Ricky Young noted that Weigman is a player of many talents who can help his team pursue a Sandhills Athletic Conference title this season.
“Garet’s really versatile,” Young said. “He can play the outfield, he’s a catcher and he can do a little bit of pitching for us. He can do a lot of things. And he can swing the bat well, so if you can do that, we try to find a place in the lineup for you. And lucky for him, he’s versatile enough to play several different positions.
“We expect good things out of him this season,” Young continued. “He works hard in the weight room and at practice every day. He definitely has some skills, and we expect him to have a good year.”
