A dream comes true… Elizabethton’s Carter signs to become a Duke Blue Devil
Published 1:15 am Friday, November 15, 2019
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Star Photo/Ivan Sanders Members of the Elizabethton Cyclone baseball team along with coaches join Karson Dillard and Evan Carter as they signed their National Letter of Intents on Wednesday in the Elizabethton Commons area.
Star Photo/Ivan Sanders EHS senior Evan Carter listens as Cyclone head baseball coach Ryan Presnell speaks of Carter before his star player signs with Duke.
BY IVAN SANDERS
STAR SPORTS EDITOR
ivan.sanders@elizabethton.com
Even though the verbal agreement has been in place for over a year, the reality of officially becoming a member of the Duke University Blue Devil baseball team didn’t set in until ink was put to paper on a National Letter of Intent Wednesday inside the Elizabethton Commons Area by Cyclone baseball player Evan Carter.
Joined by a large crowd of supporters three athletes signed papers on Wednesday but none was bigger than Carter’s signature hitting the Division 1 paperwork sent by Duke to officially seal Carter’s place on the team after his graduation.
Carter became the first Division 1 baseball signee for Elizabethton since the 2014 season when Thomas Miller signed to play with Middle Tennessee State University.
“Man, I just want to thank God for my family and my coaches,” said Carter before the signing. “My mom pours her heart and soul into me and dad puts his heart and soul into me throwing me balls and mom washing my clothes whenever she can.
“My brother supports me, my coaches support me and I have the best team out there and I am super blessed to have what I have.”
Carter is the epitome of what a baseball coach at any level desires in a player as the senior never fails to show what true hustle is whether it’s taking the field or coming off and doing whatever it takes to help his team win a game.
Realizing there is some unfinished business before he leaves the Elizabethton Campus is one of the driving factors for Carter’s upcoming senior season.
“We are going down to Murfreesboro and we aren’t coming back empty-handed this time,” said Carter with a big grin.
Carter was asked what he thinks that he can take to the Duke program.
“I think that the leader that Coach Presnell has built in me and building a brotherhood – I am going over there to love on everybody and I hope that they give that right back,” Carter said.
Duke was an obvious choice for Carter no only from a baseball perspective with the Blue Devils but from an educational perspective as he will be studying Biology as his field of choice.
“Their coaching staff is just awesome and their school is something academically that I have always wanted to have. Just everything clicked with the way I wanted everything to work,” Carter continued.
Presnell was asked how he would describe Evan Carter to a Duke baseball fan.
“I would tell them that if I was them I would get a front-row ticket because you are going to see some special stuff,” stated Presnell. “He definitely fits in and that is saying a lot about a kid that is as young as he is. He just now turned 17 so when he goes to Duke he will still be 17.
“They are getting a young man who has an upside that is just absolutely tremendous. I would definitely put him in the top 100 players in the country right now and he’s not only talent worthy of that ranking but he is work-hard worthy of that ranking as well.
“When you talk about big-time players, that’s what you have to see and Duke was able to recognize that not only does he have ACC talent written all over him but he has a Duke ACT score. So there are a lot of pluses and we expect to see a lot out of him.”
According to Presnell, one of the things that impressed Coach Pollard of Duke was that Carter was coming off the field as hard as he could and took the field as hard as he could in all the camps that he attended.
And Presnell said that has always been the way Carter has played the game.
