Competition in every sport in Central Jersey is absolutely fantastic. Children in all of our towns are encouraged to participate in a wide variety of activities both in school and outside of school. There are so many activities available but there is so little time. Surprisingly each child seems to find the activities they enjoy the most. As children grow older, each activity begins to require much more time in order for that individual to excel. What is a child to do when faced with having to make a choice? Unfortunately, children seem to be faced with those decisions when they are still just kids. In high school the purging process really starts to take hold. Then, as our children go off to college, they are forced to narrow their pursuits even further.
In athletics, to have someone be good enough to play one sport in college is an accomplishment. To play multiple sports in college is relatively unusual. To play multiple sports in college and to excel at all of them is an absolute rarity. Joe Jensen, a 2011 graduate of WWP North, happens to be one of those unique athletes that opted to continue playing multiple sports in college and has excelled in each of them.
During his senior year of high school, most of the colleges that were recruiting Joe told him that he was being recruited to play one sport. Though Joe loved baseball and knew he would play in college, as QB for WWP North, he had just led his team to their most successful season in the history of the school and wasn’t quite ready to give up the sport. Joe chose to go to Hamilton College in upstate New York because when he was recruited to play football they also told him that he could play baseball. Hamilton College is a Division III school in the New England Small College Athletic Conference (NESCAC). Joe was given the opportunity to play multiple sports while attending a highly competitive academic school. That ended up being a pretty good choice.
Joe started out playing football and baseball, earning a starting position on both teams during his freshman year. Then, during his sophomore year, he was looking to spend more time working on his speed for football and baseball. During the winter it gets pretty cold in upstate New York so he was looking to get some time where he could work out on the indoor track. His roommate, a member of the college track team, talked him into walking-on to the track team. Never having run track at any level, Joe was suddenly a three-sport athlete.
Joe didn’t just excel at each of the sport he played, he has put his mark in the record books in each of those sports. Joe has been one of the top players in the conference for each of the past three years. He has delivered 106 victories for Hamilton College (football, track , and baseball) over the past four years. And he is the only Hamilton College Athlete to receive All Conference Honors in the three sports that he has played.
Joe’s Hamilton College career is now coming to a close. And during his time at Hamilton, he was an important piece of the engine that resulted in a turnaround for the baseball program that culminated with the first winning season for Hamilton College in 25 years. Joe is, without question, the fastest and most successful base runner in Hamilton College and NESCAC history. Joe has stolen 29 bases in a single season and 78 bases in his career. This despite the fact that everyone knew that he was going to steal bases.
Not many athletes can lay claim to the fact that they were the all-time conference leader in any category. Joe has been one of Division III leaders in stolen bases per game for each of the past three seasons. Joe is a three-time NCAA All American in indoor track, holds seven Hamilton College indoor track school records and holds multiple facility records across the region including a Division III NYC Armory record.
For football players, Joe has ranked as one of the fastest in the game for Division I, II & III. The only sign of disbelief exhibited whenever someone has watched Joe run has been when MLB Scouts have had him run at MLB workouts. Then, they ask him to run again because they can’t believe their watches. He was clocked at 6.23 in the 60 yard last year and has only gotten faster since the scouts last timed him.
Of course, Joe’s efforts in the ABCL this past summer resulted in him being named to the ABCL All Star Game along with the opportunity to have multiple workouts in front of Major League Scouts. Their recognition translated into Joe being named the sixth best MLB prospect in the Atlantic Region by Perfect Game and then being named the top MLB prospect in Division III by Baseball America. Joe’s versatility was also noted by Runner’s World Magazine as an individual who has excelled at multiple sports in college.
Despite having run in the NCAA championships one day and then flying down to Florida to join his baseball team in season the very next day, Joe has not missed a beat transitioning from one sport to another. Joe finished the 2015 NESCAC baseball season in third place with a batting average of .398 and he had the highest batting average for all outfielders in the league. He led the league in stolen bases. He was third in the conference for hits. He was in the top 10 for his on base average.
Joe is near the top of the season and career records list in a number of other categories. His level of play has impressed everyone that has seen him play. Over the past year, scouts from every major league baseball team have come to see him play. And on June 8 Joe will be in the Major League Baseball Draft. It seems Joe is narrowing his choices a little later than everyone else but he has had a pretty amazing run. The next question is, “Where does it go after June 8?”
Joseph C. Jensen
Editor’s note: As of the time this issue went to the printer, Jensen had not yet been selected in the baseball draft.
