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Reynolds makes rapid rise to D-I

By Trey Williams
Press Sports Writer
twilliams@johnsoncitypress.com

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After being lifted for pinch hitters during his junior season at Daniel Boone, Alex Reynolds lifted his way to a Division I offer.

Reynolds signed with East Tennessee State this week, capping an unlikely year-long dash up from the Division III radar.

Reynolds’ only suitor entering his senior season was Maryville College. So between October and January, the 5-foot-9 Reynolds says, he went from 160 pounds to 185 thanks to a diet and training program inspired by Tri-Cities Baptist buddy Jason Nave.

Reynolds lifted weights Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays and ran sprints Tuesdays and Thursdays while constantly digesting egg whites, whole wheat toast, peanut butter and protein shakes and bars.

He also got his 60-yard dash time below seven seconds (6.9). After his sophomore season, Reynolds was running the 60 in 8.3.

“He was a pretty good player coming in (to the program), but no one would’ve ever thought he would’ve done what he has,” Daniel Boone coach Robbie Hoover said. “Alex put in hours and hours. He transformed his body. ... Weak fly balls turned into balls in the gaps.”

And many balls cleared fences. Reynolds, a second baseman, batted .415 with nine home runs and 31 RBI as a senior.

“I’d never hit a home run in my life,” Reynolds said, “not even in Little League.”

His college stock started rising. Maryville was soon eclipsed by NCAA Division II schools Tusculum College, King College and Lincoln Memorial University.

He thought the Division I interest would catch on after he hit home runs off David Crockett’s Brandon Massey and Sullivan South’s Tristan Archer. However, it was after he tripled off the Cardinal Park fence against Science Hill’s Daniel Norris on April 20 that Reynolds says he heard from ETSU. Norris struck out 12 in the 4-1 Hilltoppers victory, but Reynolds silver-lined the loss by hitting a 2-0 fastball off the opposite-field wall in an impressive lefty-versus-lefty triumph.

“It seemed like that was when people decided I could play Division I ball,” Reynolds said.

ETSU coach Tony Skole was in attendance.

“I remember Coach Skole was sitting behind the backstop,” Hoover said. “I could tell he kind of perked up when Alex hit that ball.”

Reynolds had already long been on the Bucs’ radar.

“We’d already made a decision on him well before that,” Skole said. “I saw Alex play a handful of times and I don’t know if I saw him make an out.”

Reynolds says he didn’t learn of ETSU’s serious interest until about a week after the season. By then he was happily watching Tusculum and LMU sweeten offers, but hearing from ETSU was a dream come true.

Reynolds followed fellow Boone alumnus Jeremy Hall when he was a Buc. He said Hall’s mother taught him in elementary school.

Now, it’s Reynolds who’ll be playing at Cardinal Park, which is more friendly to left-handed batters than right-handed pitchers.

“I’m so excited about playing there,” Reynolds said.

Reynolds’ favorite quote is by Derek Jeter. It’s about setting goals to reach dreams, and concludes: It’s up to you to want to do something so badly that your passion shows in your actions.

Those are words to live by for Reynolds, who, along with weightlifting and running, swung bats a couple of thousand times a week at Alpha Omega Sports Academy – his father’s indoor training facility in Kingsport.

“I was in there hitting off a tee all the time, just wearing it out,” Reynolds said. “People would make fun of me – I don’t use batting gloves – and they’d call me ‘Troll Hands.’”

Skole described Reynolds as a “hard-nosed, gritty competitor.” Hoover might have best seen those attributes when he’d pull Reynolds for pinch hitters as a junior.

“I remember a couple of times I pinch-hit for him,” Hoover said. “I could tell he was fuming inside, but I loved that. He took it the right way.”

Reynolds said he would get “respectfully mad,” but converted anger to motivation. He says Hoover aided his maturation, and seemed to evolve himself during Reynolds’ career.

“He pushed us harder than ever this season, but he was also more relaxed,” Reynolds said. “We joked around and laughed.”

Reynolds also credits local hitting instructor Yogi Richardson and Tri-Cities Tigers coach Richard Jordan for helping his development. The Tigers have played in such places as Myrtle Beach, Cincinnati and Omaha, Nebraska, where they attended three College World Series games.

Reynolds will play with the Virginia Storm in the AAU 19-under national championships July 26-Aug. 1 in Fort Myers, Fla. Then he’ll get started on being a Buccaneer, a thought that would’ve been scoffed at this time last year.

“The first time I saw him,” Skole said, “I was there to watch another athlete.”