University of Washington quarterback Jake Locker to play baseball this summer

Published 12:11 am Saturday, March 1, 2008

SEATTLE — Jake Locker is ready to be a two-sport athlete again.

Well, sort of anyway.

The Washington quarterback, an all-state baseball player at Ferndale High School, will dust off his glove at bat this summer to play for the Bellingham Bells of the West Coast Collegiate Baseball League.

Locker insists that football will still come first, however.

“It’s a good opportunity for me,” he said. “My first commitment is still to the football team and it always will be, and any responsibilities I have here I’m going to take care of, and then when I have some free time and I can go play, I’m going to be able to.”

The Bells, who play the Everett Merchants in Bellingham in June, are coached by Brandon Newell, who served as an assistant at Ferndale while Locker was there.

“He had called me and said, ‘If you want to play, we could do something where you could come when you could make it and get to as many games as you can and that would be cool,’” Locker said.

The Bells’ schedule begins in early June, and runs into August, though Locker said he will only play in games that don’t interfere with his football duties, and he will stop playing once fall camp begins.

Locker, a pitcher and outfielder in high school, will not pitch for the Bells.

“That’s one thing I told them, I don’t want to do anything to my arm,” he said. “I told them I wanted to focus on playing in the outfield and they were OK with that.”

Locker was drafted by the Angels in the 40th round of the Major League Baseball draft as a senior in high school, but that was after he contacted teams that were interested in him and told them not to draft him because he was going to play football. Had he decided to pursue baseball, Locker was projected as a late first-round or early second-round pick.

Locker said it’s unlikely he will end up a two-sport athlete for the Huskies.

“I don’t know, probably not,” Locker said. “Like I said, it was a good opportunity in the summer when I have a little more free time, so it worked out well.”

Tyrone Willingham, who played baseball and football at Michigan State, supported Locker’s decision in a statement released by the school Friday.

“Jake is such a great competitor and I completely support his decision to play baseball this summer,” said Willingham, who was a second-team all-Big Ten Conference selection as a centerfielder on the Michigan State baseball team. “He has always had, and will continue to have, a positive commitment to our program and to his teammates. That will not change. I don’t believe that playing baseball this summer will have a negative impact on his development as a football player.”

Notes

UW opens search for public address announcer: The Huskies will open the search for a new football P.A. announcer at Husky Stadium to replace Lou Gellermann, who retired during the 2007 season.

The school started accepting applications Friday, and plans to name the new announcer at the April 26 spring game.

More information can be found at gohuskies.com.

AD search committee appointed: University of Washington president Mark Emmert announced the members of the search advisory committee for the athletic director position, which became open when Todd Turner resigned in December.

The committee will by chaired by Lizabeth Wilson, the dean of UW Libraries. The committee includes a number of UW faculty and staff members, as well as men’s basketball coach Lorenzo Romar and women’s soccer coach Leslie Gallimore.

Contact Herald Writer John Boyle at jboyle@heraldnet.com. For more on UW sports, check out the Huskies blog at heraldnet.com /huskiesblog