By Chris Umpierre
Daily Bruin Staff
On June 5 UCLA junior first-team All-American Bill Scott could
be selected in the late first or early second round of
baseball’s amateur draft and be offered hundreds of thousands
of dollars to play professionally.
Although he loves school, loves his teammates and loves playing
for the Bruins, Scott says he would probably accept the offer and
forgo his final year of eligibility to pursue his dream of one day
playing in the big leagues.
“I think (leaving early) is the best way for me,”
said Scott, who needs five more quarters of coursework to graduate.
“I’ve been here for three years and it’s been a
great experience. I think I can move on now and know that I can
finish my degree fairly easily.”
One of Scott’s reasons for leaving school after his junior
season ““ a season in which he hit .430, slugged 21 homers and
drove in 75 runs ““ is that he will get a jump on his
professional career.
“(Turning pro early) is where your pro team is going to
start molding you into the player they want you to be,” Scott
said. “You want to get started on the right path as quick as
possible. The earlier you get out of here the quicker you have a
chance to get to the big leagues, and that’s the ultimate
goal.”
Scott also points out that he will get more money in the draft
now than if he stayed all four seasons.
The leftfielder also has more bargaining power as a junior, he
said, in that he can choose to go back to school for his final
year. If he waits until after his senior year to turn pro, Scott
wouldn’t have that option.
And then there is the possibility of injury if he were to return
to school.
“You can come back your senior year and have a bad
injury,” Scott said. “It completely ruins your chances
of getting draft. That’s a definite big risk.”
But some college coaches say Scott would be making a mistake,
should he decide to leave school early.
“I feel in almost all cases that it’s a
mistake,” former UCLA head basketball coach John Wooden said.
“They are passing up a college education that will be
meaningful all their life. I think they lose the greatest years of
their life.”
UCLA head football coach Bob Toledo agreed.
“In my opinion I think it’s a bad decision because I
don’t think they are matured enough,” he said.
“They are not experienced enough, and I think there is so
much more to be gained by staying.”
Scott agreed that these are the best years of his life and says
he thought considerably about staying in school.
“Coming back to school is definitely worth something to
me,” he said. “The advantages for me of staying would
be that I would get my degree and I’d know that I would come
back and have another good year. And it’s really fun living
around here and playing with the guys on the team.”
The way Scott looks at it, though, he will definitely return to
UCLA to finish his degree.
“Even if I didn’t need a degree and I made it in
baseball, it’s still something for myself that I would want
to do,” he said. “I take pride in school and I want to
be able to say that I graduated from UCLA.”
According to UCLA head baseball coach Gary Adams, who has seen
69 of his underclassmen turn pro early, his players have a good
record of coming back and getting their diplomas.
“These guys do come back and graduate ““ that’s
the beauty of it all,” Adams said. “UCLA’s
athletic department does a great job of getting the guys back and
helping them finish their degree. During the fall you’ll see
major league, triple A, double A, and single A players walking on
campus trying to get their degree.”
In fact, Adams said, UCLA might be doing too good of a job of
getting players to finish their degrees.
“UCLA does such a good job of giving them an opportunity
to get their degree the guys know it’s not that tough so they
sign (after their junior year),” Adams said.
“It’s kind of like, “˜Are we doing the right
thing?'”
But according to men’s soccer coach Todd Saldaña, who
recently lost juniors Carlos Bocanegra and Nick Rimando to Major
League Soccer, returning to school might be more difficult than
some players think.
“All of us have good intentions to come back but it is
difficult after you have been away for awhile,” Saldaña
said.
But Scott said this was not a decision he made recently. He said
he had the three-year plan in mind when he enrolled at UCLA.
He also said he understands why UCLA sophomore basketball
players Jerome Moiso and JaRon Rush left school early to declare
themselves eligible for the NBA draft.
“If you can get a lot of money, you’d have to say
that you would be stupid to pass it up,” Scott said.
“As long as they have the opportunity, I’d got to admit
I would probably do the same thing. I think anybody would do the
same thing if they had the chance to get that kind of
money.”