Student Athlete Spotlight: Joe Duncan
Student Athlete Spotlight by Jaclyn Candelet
Spring is here, which means its baseball season. For senior Joe Duncan that means potentially staying inside longer to practice until the snow that Mother Nature kindly dumped on us melts away, but thankfully MCLA has a turf facility that the baseball team does use. Duncan is used to this weather and being stuck inside the gym for periods on ends as he is a Dalton native.
Duncan who graduated from Wahconah Regional High School is one of 12 players from Berkshire County on Coach Puleri's Trailblazer roster. Being from a small community Duncan uses the support he got while growing up and has carried it here to North Adams with him which also gets a lot of support from the surrounding community near school.
Duncan fell in love with the game playing backyard baseball with his cousins, but he was influenced by his older brother to pursue the game. "I wanted to be like him and him being older made me play," said Duncan. At 10 years old Duncan was close to stopping though, as he broke his jaw playing wiffle ball.
Last season Duncan set the school record for stolen bases in a season (23). Currently he leads the team with four tagged bases in 12 games.
Not only is Duncan successful on the field, but he is also the president of the Student Athletic Advisory Committee (SAAC). SAAC is a committee on campus that enhances the total student-athlete experience by promoting events around campus mostly during athletic competitions. One event that is very popular among students on campus is fan day; where there are a variety of different events that go on during half-time or in between games with chances to win prizes.
He has taken full advantage of being part of SAAC and working with other student-athletes as it has helped him improve his communication skills and prepared him for co-workers in the future.
Joe Duncan will graduate this May with a Bachelors degree in Business but he will continue his education and attend the University of Massachusetts Amherst to obtain his Masters of Science in Accountancy. His senior year of baseball is just beginning though. Over the weekend the Trailblazers split their first conference match-up with Fitchburg. Duncan and the Trailblazers will play at Union College on Tuesday but will not open at home until April 10th when they take on Southern Vermont College; first pitch is scheduled for 3:00 pm.