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MILL CREEK – Even as a youngster, Travis Snider stood out on the baseball field.
“I’ve always been a bigger kid. In Little League, I was always the big donkey running around,” Snider said with a laugh.
But at Jackson High School, Snider molded his once-husky frame into a 6-foot, 230-pound vessel of exceptional power and speed. Initially a football and baseball star, Snider became a weight room regular at Jackson and by his sophomore year he bench pressed 300 pounds and squatted 500.
Now a senior, Snider’s sculpted body looks nothing like the average teenager’s. The same goes for his performance on the baseball field.
This past season, the left-handed hitting right fielder cranked a school-record 11 home runs, drove in 45 runs and had an eye-popping .500 batting average. The most dangerous hitter on a team that featured a ridiculously potent batting lineup, Snider helped propel Jackson to a 27-0 record and its first state championship.
For a season in which Snider and the Timberwolves met and ultimately exceed sky-high expectations, Snider is the Herald’s 2006 All-Area Baseball Player of the Year.
“He had a high bar going in, and he rose it a few feet,” Jackson coach Alan Briggs said of Snider, an Arizona State University recruit who could be selected in the first round of next week’s Major League Baseball draft.
Snider’s senior season began the day after Jackson took third place in the 2005 state tourney. Applying leadership tips he learned from Chris Bowen, the ‘05 team’s lone senior, Snider led captain’s practices several times a week and made sure the T-Wolves had ample opportunity to hone their skills.
“This is not just a March-to-May ball club. Travis made sure that the team was preparing from last year,” Briggs said.
“The players respect him because of how hard he works at the game. This isn’t just a kid who wants to win – this is a kid who hates to lose.”
Snider acknowledged his role as a vocal leader but he said most of his teammates were just as motivated as he was. It’s a wise, honest observation by an athlete who received national accolades all season and was named Gatorade’s 2006 Washington State Baseball Player of the Year. If he wanted to, Snider could have hogged the spotlight, but “even with all that talent, he would never say he’s carried this team,” Briggs said.
In interviews, Snider comes off as an uncommonly mature, focused teenager. It stems, at least partly, from a terrifying experience that forced him to grow up quickly.
In November 2002, early in Snider’s freshman year at Jackson, his mom, Patty Snider, got pneumonia and slipped into a coma for 14 days. A machine breathed for her as she remained motionless in the hospital, and her frightened son learned a heart-wrenching lesson.
“That, for me, was an eye opener,” Travis Snider said. “Life is a precious thing and can be taken away very quickly.”
Today, Snider’s mom is healthy, although it took her about 18 months to fully recuperate. Snider said the harrowing experience helped push him to fulfill his potential and go full-speed towards his ultimate goal of playing pro baseball.
Snider gave up football his senior year to focus on baseball. The two-sport standout sat out his junior football season after suffering a broken right fibula, and he cited a desire to stay healthy and to put all his energy into pursuing a baseball career.
He’s well on his way.
Snider’s powerful swing, strong throwing arm, foot speed and positive attitude make him quite a find, Briggs said: “You have the complete package.” “I’m sure he’ll make an impression and draw people with the power of his bat,” Briggs continued. “People come to watch guys who can hit it. If Travis continues to develop like he (has), he’s gonna do a lot of special things.”
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