Woolfolk planning some rare double duty in Charlottesville

The Virginia baseball team will be without one of its most highly-regarded freshmen pitchers when the Wahoos take the field for the first workout of the new school year on Tuesday.

Most of the first-years moved into the dorms last week, but pitcher Jay Woolfolk has been on Grounds for several weeks now. The right-hander is attempting to play both football and baseball at UVa and is currently one of two freshman quarterbacks in preseason camp around the corner from Disharoon Park at the McCue Center.

Woolfolk is attempting a two-sport college career that hasn’t been common at UVa in recent years. Linebacker DJ Hill was a junior when he briefly spent time with the baseball program in 2014; Tom Hagan spent two years splitting time between punter and outfielder before choosing to focus on baseball after the 2003 football season.

Then there was Anthony Martinez, a former four-star quarterback who started a pair of games as a redshirt freshman in 2003, then played 12 games with the baseball program in 2005 after giving up football. More recently, Jalen Harrison spent the past two seasons at wide receiver after joining the football program in the spring of 2019 following two-plus seasons as a reserve outfielder.

Woolfolk was a three-star dual-threat quarterback and the No. 15 player in the state coming out of Benedictine. On the diamond, he was ranked the No. 5 player and the No. 2 right-handed pitcher in Virginia by Perfect Game. He helped the Cadets win VISAA state championships in both sports.

“There’s some really, really special, elite athletes historically that aspire to not give up either one of the sports, and Jay is one of those guys,” said UVa baseball coach Brian O’Connor. “Jay is an elite-level baseball player and I know has aspirations of continuing to play both. We’ll have to see how it’s managed in the spring but I anticipate that he will be able to be a member of our team.”

O’Connor met with Woolfolk and his family a few times over the summer to discuss MLB Draft possibilities, but the right-hander went unselected last month. They have not been in contact since he got to school to begin working out with the football program, and O'Connor expects that to remain the case through the fall semester.. As with all two-sport instances that involve football, Woolfolk’s scholarship counts toward the football program and the baseball coach said the first-year's focus needs to be on the gridiron.

“Football dictates, and it should, what somebody’s involvement is with baseball,” O'Connor told CavsCorner during a recent conversation.

At McCue, Woolfolk is competing this summer with fellow first-year Jacob Rodriguez and redshirt freshman Ira Armstead for time behind starting quarterback Brennan Armstrong. Rodriguez got a head start on his college career by enrolling early in January while Woolfolk stayed at Benedictine to play his final high school baseball season.

“When you first get here, whether that’s mid-year or now, it’s like you’re drinking out of a firehose,” quarterbacks coach Jason Beck said after a practice early in camp. “It’s just overwhelming. And that’s where Jay Woolfolk is right now, and he’s handling it really well.”

Head coach Bronco Mendenhall mentioned Woolfolk among a short list of first-year players who had stood out after the first full week of camp. His arm strength has also gotten the attention of teammates. When asked about the young quarterback, senior Keytaon Thompson said Woolfolk “has a rocket for an arm. He can really put it out there.”

“Very strong arm," agreed Armstead. "That’s that pitcher arm. He’s really good.”

Woolfolk can shove on the mound as well, with a fastball that creeps into the low 90s. After his junior season at Benedictine, he was named the Gatorade state baseball player of the year. Baseball America had him as the No. 15 draft prospect in the state this summer.

“He’s very gifted,” O’Connor said. “He’s got a great arm. He’s been a very successful high school pitcher and I wouldn’t rule out that he could potentially be an outfielder as well. He was very, very good as a position player as well. Now that’s difficult to pull both of them off, especially not being here for the whole fall and everything, but that said, you find some of these really special athletes, they can show up and do it.”

When O’Connor was an assistant at Notre Dame, a few players were able to successfully juggle both football and baseball careers. He helped recruit Jeff Samardzija, but had left for UVa by the time the pitcher/receiver arrived in South Bend.

O’Connor concedes that the semantics will be a work in progress as Woolfolk’s career unfolds, though the fact that he’s a pitcher could make his schedule easier to manage.

“When you’re a pitcher you don’t necessarily have to be at practice every day,” O’Connor pointed out. “You’ve got to get there and do your bullpen, do your throwing and things like that. The overlap of spring football and things like that, it’s definitely manageable and I’m excited.

“First and foremost, I think Jay’s a great kid,” the head baseball coach continued. “I think he’s a phenomenal kid and he’s been very, very successful, and I think he’s got the kind of talent that we need on our pitching staff.”

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