FORT MYERS, Fla. – FSW sophomore pitcher Willie Rios has officially signed a contract with the Baltimore Orioles after being selected in the 16th round (481st overall) of the 2016 MLB Draft in June.
Rios, who also was a 26th-round draft selection by the Arizona Diamondbacks in 2014, is the 27th player in program history (including Edison Community College) to be drafted to the MLB.
The 6-foot lefty signed a National Letter of Intent to play at the University of Miami in November 2015 before pitching for FSW during the 2016 season. He went 3-7 with a 5.56 ERA in 14 appearances, including 11 starts, for the Bucs in 2016. In 56.2 innings he tallied 69 strikeouts and averaged 10.96 strikeouts per contest.
Rios, named the New England Collegiate Baseball League’s (NECBL) Top Pro Prospect for the 2015 season in August, enjoyed an excellent summer (2015) on the mound for the Mystic Schooners, finishing the regular season undefeated with a sub-2.00 ERA. He headlined the league’s best pitching staff (2.61 team ERA) and helped the Schooners franchise reach the NECBL Championship Series for the first time in over 20 years.
Rios posted a 4-0 record and a 1.80 ERA, which ranked fifth in the league. In seven starts and 35 innings, the lefty fanned 41 and held the opposition to just a .202 batting average against him all year. The Waterford, Conn. native also played five games at first base, finishing with two hits in 14 at-bats to help the cause.
He made nine appearances as a true freshman at Maryland in 2015. In 19-2/3 innings for the Terrapins, he struck out 21 and walked only eight for a Maryland squad that won 42 games in its second season in the Big Ten Conference.
Before his season at Maryland, Rios was a four-year letterwinner for St. Bernard School and helped lead the club to three Eastern Connecticut Conference championships. A Perfect Game USA second team All-American and a 2013 Under Armour All-American, Rios was rated as the second-best player in Connecticut in the class of 2014 and the 104th-best player in the country.
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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.