FORT MYERS, Fla. – Florida SouthWestern State College sophomores Max Ford, Jack Piekos and Hayden Platt have signed National Letters of Intent to play at NCAA Division I institutions and will compete for their schools for the 2016-17 academic year. Ford and Piekos will continue their careers at Eastern Kentucky, while Platt will play at Elon.
Ford, a Perfect Game top 150 junior college MLB Draft prospect, pitched at the University of Georgia as a freshman before playing for the Bucs in 2016. The 6-foot-1 right-handed pitcher made 22 appearances and finished with a 3-4 record with a 4.99 ERA for FSW last season. At Georgia he appeared in five games as a second baseman and then made the transition to relief pitcher. He hit .250 with one RBI in eight at bats and went 0-0, 0.00 ERA in 1.1 innings with two strikeouts on the mound.
In his senior season at Jefferson High School, Ford posted a 7-2 record with a 0.80 ERA. He was ranked by Perfect Game as a top-500 player in the country out of high school and was named honorable mention All-American
Piekos, a 6-foot lefty pitcher from Blue Point, N.Y., played at University of Maryland as a freshman before coming to Fort Myers to pitch for head coach Jamie Corr and FSW. Piekos made 14 appearances, led the Bucs with 75.2 innings pitched and finished with a 3-4 record, one save and a 4.76 ERA for the Bucs last season.
Perfect Game rated him as the second best left-handed pitcher in New York during his senior year at Bayport-Blue Point High School, where he struck out 144 batters in 74 innings and posted an 11-1 record with a 0.42 ERA as a senior.
Platt led the Buccaneers with a .338 batting average and also registered 46 hits, six doubles, 28 RBIs and a team-high six homers. The Naples, Fla. product stepped up his productivity during conference play, hitting .374 with five doubles, four home runs and 18 RBIs.
The catcher transferred to FSW after playing his redshirt freshman season at Broward College. At Broward, he appeared in 37 games and hit .253 with one homer, six doubles, 17 RBI and 24 hits. He also finished with 189 put outs with just three errors.
The Buccaneers wrapped up the 2016 season with a 22-28 overall record and went 10-20 in Suncoast Conference games.
For more information on Buccaneer Athletics follow @FSWBucs on Twitter or log on to FSWBucs.com.
FLORIDA SOUTHWESTERN
The Florida SouthWestern State College athletic program is a member of the Florida College System Activities Association (FCSAA) and the National Junior College Athletic Association (NJCAA). The Buccaneers are one of 25 schools in the NJCAA Region 8 and are one of six schools in the Suncoast Conference. Florida SouthWestern State College currently supports four intercollegiate athletic programs (Baseball, Softball, Men’s Basketball, Women’s Basketball), with Volleyball coming in the fall of 2017.
Baseball and Softball began their regular season competition in 2016 at the City of Palms Park in Fort Myers. Located on the Thomas Edison (Lee) Campus in Fort Myers will be the brand new Suncoast Credit Union Arena (set to be completed by fall 2016), where FSW’s men’s and women’s basketball and volleyball teams will compete.
THE NJCAA
The movement to form a unique sports association dedicated to America’s two-year colleges arose in 1937 when several track and field coaches gathered in Fresno, California. A year later, the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) rejected a petition from 13 two-year colleges in California to grant their teams and athletes permission to compete at the NCAA Track & Field Championships.
In the spring of 1938, following the NCAA’s rejection, those same 13 two-year colleges gathered again in Fresno to organize and form an association that would promote and supervise a national athletics program exclusively for junior and community colleges…and the rest is history.
On May 14, 1938, the first constitution of the National Junior College Athletic Association was accepted by its charter members and the organization held its first national championship event a year later in May 1939.
The NJCAA has played a vital role in collegiate athletics for the past eight decades and continues to be the leader in championing academic and athletic opportunities for student-athletes. This section of the association's website is dedicated to celebrating the NJCAA's rich history and tradition as the national governing body of two-year college athletics.
For more information on the NJCAA log on to www.NJCAA.org.
THE FCSAA
The Florida College System Activities Association, Incorporated (FCSAA) is a statewide non‑profit corporation regulating, coordinating, and promoting intercollegiate activities in: Athletics, Brain Bowl, Forensics, Music, Student Government, Student Publications, and Theatre.
Membership in the Florida College System Activities Association is open to any of the 28 colleges in the Florida College System. Each member institution is represented in the policy‑making deliberations of the Association through that institution's President or other designated representative. The institutional representatives constitute the FCSAA Presidents Assembly, the ultimate authority in FCSAA.
For more information on the FCSAA log on to www.TheFCSAA.com.
NJCAA REGION 8 & THE SUNCOAST CONFERENCE
Member colleges of the NJCAA are allotted to a specific NJCAA Region upon membership to the association. Unlike other collegiate organizations that defer to conference affiliation, the NJCAA guarantees each member college's membership within the regional structure of the association. In most cases, region assignment is based upon geographic location of the college.
The region structure of the NJCAA is the primary method used by all sponsored sports of the association in determining qualification for national championship tournaments. In certain sports, two or more regions are partnered to form a competition 'district', which is then used for national championship qualification. The organization of districts varies per sport and is formulated every two years under the authority of the association's board of directors.
FSW is in Region 8 and is joined by ASA College Miami (Region 8 only; non-FCSAA member), Broward College, Chipola College, College of Central Florida, Daytona State College, Eastern Florida State College, Florida State College at Jacksonville, Gulf Coast State College, Hillsborough Community College, Indian River State College, Lake-Sumter State College, Miami Dade College, Northwest Florida State College, Palm Beach State College, Pasco-Hernando State College, Pensacola State College, Polk State College, Santa Fe College, Seminole State College of Florida, South Florida State College, St. Johns River State College, St. Petersburg College, State College of Florida Manatee-Sarasota and Tallahassee Community College.
The Bucs are also in the Suncoast Conference with Hillsborough Community College, Polk State College, South Florida State College, St. Petersburg College and State College of Florida Manatee-Sarasota.
For more information on Region 8 log on to www.TheFCSAASports.com.