Houston's where the heart is

When the baseball team traveled to the University of Houston for a three-game series in March, many of the Tigers felt more at home than when they play at Clarke Field here at Princeton.

A city known best for its oil, Houston has made a name for itself for another reason at Princeton — its baseball. Six of the Tigers' 28 players hail from the Lone Star state's biggest city, with four hailing from the same high school — Mirabeau B. Lamar High School, a Class 5A public school in Houston.

"All of the sudden, there was just an opening in our schedule [to play Houston]," head coach Scott Bradley said. "It made it nice for everybody ... for our kids to be able to go back to their area to play."

Houston's significant representation on the Princeton team is largely a function of the caliber of players from that area. While many college coaches have viewed Tampa, Fla., as the nation's high school baseball powerhouse in years past, Bradley argues that Houston is now "probably the best area in the United States for baseball talent."

The steep athletic competition among Houston teams, the academic excellence of the schools and the many Princeton alumni in the area make Houston an ideal place from which to recruit.

"It's an area we will definitely continue recruiting heavily," Bradley said. "That's for sure."

Bellaire High School — Lamar's rival in Houston and junior outfielder Micah Kaplan's alma mater — produced Princeton's all-time leading home-run hitter; Matthew Evans '99 launched 26 homers during his collegiate career with the Tigers.

While Princeton has profited from Houston players in the past, Lamar in particular had not sent many students to Princeton until recently.

Junior pitcher Christian Staehely noted that he and classmate Jim Weiss — a midfielder on the men's lacrosse team — were the first to go to Princeton from Lamar in years, even though Lamar had sent students to the Ivy League. Staehely, however, sent Bradley a highlight tape as a high school junior and started a string of recent Lamar baseball players who have come to Princeton.

"[Staehely] told me about [Lamar teammate and sophomore designated hitter] Adrian Turnham," Bradley said, "then when Adrian came in I said, 'Okay, who's next?' "

Through "these little connections," Bradley stocked this year's freshman class with infielder Noel Gonzales-Luna and outfielder Brandon Englert from Lamar, as well as pitcher Ross Staine from nearby Memorial High School.

The ability to attract a high number of talented Houston players is quite an accomplishment for the Tigers. Texas high school players often choose to stay in the South or even instate, where a host of topnotch collegiate programs reside, including current No. 9 Texas, No. 22 Texas A&M and No. 27 Texas Christian.

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"People don't usually leave Texas; they want to go to college there, they want to ... live the rest of their life in Texas," Staehely said. "It's pretty different for anyone to go up to the Northeast."

With such a significant portion of the team drawn from such a small geographically area, many of the players have already played with or against one another before stepping foot on campus.

"The only Houston player that I did not know before I arrived on campus was [Kaplan]," Englert said, "[But] I knew of him."

These Houston players did not just battle during their school seasons. They also faced each other during the summer months.

"Some of these kids [have been] rivals their whole life," Bradley said. "You know there was some animosity and some bad blood before ... they had a lot of battles on the ball field against each other for a lot of years."

Staehely played with Kaplan for the Columbia Angels, a well-known Houston-area summer league team, and Staine and Englert also competed in summer ball before becoming teammates at Princeton.

Princeton's tendency to draw players from the South, if not Houston in particular, attracted Englert to the University. Aside from the eight Texans on the current team, there are three players from Georgia, two from Florida and one from Virginia to give the squad a strong Southern character.

Princeton has welcomed fine players from elsewhere in Texas as well. Chris Young '02, currently a starting pitcher for the San Diego Padres, came to Princeton from Dallas.

"The weather's the one thing that probably separates [playing up North] from when I was playing back at Texas," Englert said. "As far as the interaction with the players, it feels almost exactly the same."

Despite the geographic pockets of representation on the team, their points of origin does not shape the team dynamic.

"I think if you're open-minded enough to come all the way up here to play baseball, you're not so worried about sticking to your clan," Staehely said. "Or else you would have probably just stayed in the warmer weather."

According to Englert, Princeton's annual summer camp for recruits was "a good way to be a part of the recruiting process" and united the majority of the team's freshman class before their actual enrollment at Princeton over a year later.

In spite of Princeton's cold weather, Houston's streak of sending baseball players to Princeton is not expected to cool off any time soon.