Younger Teel eager to enroll early, join brother at UVa

This is a new one for long time New Jersey High School baseball coach Jeff Remo.

Remo is the head coach at Mahwah High School in Bergen County. He says the best player he’s ever seen on a high school field is Kyle Teel, one of the stars of Virginia’s run to the College World Seres last summer. Remo’s best player at Mahwah last year was Aidan Teel, the brother of the now-sophomore catcher at UVa.

As an infielder, the younger Teel was one of just two sophomores named first-team All-Bergen County in baseball last spring. As a pitcher, he had an ERA below 1.00 and struck out more than two batters per inning. He’ll be a junior on Remo’s team this spring—but it will be his final year at Mahwah.

Teel intends to graduate a year early from high school next June to get a head start on his own college career at Virginia.

“I’ve been coaching for 29 years,” Remo said of Teel’s decision to reclassify, “and this is the first time that has ever happened.”

Teel and his family made the decision to reclassify for 2022 in August, but tried not to call attention to it. It didn’t become public until last week, when Teel was among the class of 2022 student-athletes honored with signing day ceremonies at Mahwah.

Because of his age, if Teel were to stay in high school for his senior year and graduate in 2023, he’d be old enough to be eligible for the MLB Draft as a college sophomore. Getting three years of development at UVa before the draft was one of the main reasons Teel and his family chose to reclassify.

Then there’s the chance to play a season with Kyle, who will be a draft-eligible junior when Aidan is a freshman in 2023. Aidan was a freshman at Mahwah when Kyle was a senior, but the Teel brothers didn’t get to play together that spring because the COVID-19 pandemic forced the cancellation of that 2020 season.

“We always talked about winning a state championship together,” Aidan told CavsCorner, “so now we’re gonna win a national championship together. That’s the plan.”

By the time Aidan was in eighth grade, Remo could tell that he was destined to play Division I baseball. Teel committed to UVa in January of his freshman year, just weeks before the pandemic wiped out that season.

He was in Charlottesville for the Cavaliers’ season-opening three-game series against UConn last February. But because of his own postseason run, Aidan was forced to watch from home as his brother and the Wahoos stormed back from an opening loss in the regional round to spend two weekends in Columbia, S.C. and then head to the College World Series.

Aidan also stayed in regular contact with Kyle throughout the season, including nightly FaceTime conversations with his older brother during that playoff run.

“He says it’s the best place on Earth,” Aidan replied when asked how Kyle described his first year at UVa.

Remo was also watching the Wahoos from New Jersey (and admitted to being a little perplexed by Kyle’s struggles to keep his batting helmet on). He says Aidan will bring that same competitive drive and work ethic to Disharoon Park that fans saw from the elder Teel as a first-year last spring.

“All-county as a sophomore up here is almost unheard of,” Remo said of Aidan, “but he’s ready.”

Teel hopes to be a two-way player for the Wahoos, though his future position is still undecided. Teel plays shortstop at Mahwah, just like his brother did. UVa coaches have floated the idea of the same transition to catcher at the college level. Remo thinks Teel could make a seamless move to the outfield as well, similar to how Kyle became the Cavaliers’ primary right fielder on their run to Omaha last year.

“He’s a baseball player,” Remo said. “He can play anywhere on the field.”

As a pitcher last spring, Teel was “basically lights out” according to his coach, mostly dominating hitters with a mid-90s fastball that they couldn’t catch up to. The right-hander is also confident he can locate his slider and is working to add a changeup to his repertoire.

“I know as a hitter, nobody likes getting a changeup,” he said with a laugh. “It’s a tough pitch to hit.”

The choice to reclassify did mean an end to Teel’s football career this fall, a decision that devastated the former running back. He elected to focus on fall ball along with the added academic workload that came with the requirements needed to graduate early. Teel is taking an extra English class and extra math class this semester to meet those requirements, and has had the full support of teachers and administrators at Mahwah.

The plan is for Teel to graduate in June “and I’ll be in Charlottesville probably the week after, to do some classes and stuff, get ready for the year coming up.” He’s lined up to play summer ball before officially joining Kyle and the rest of his UVa teammates.

Remo didn’t get a chance to watch the Teel brothers as teammates from the dugout at Mahwah. He hopes he can make the trip to one day see them in matching UVa uniforms.

"It’s just pretty neat for two brothers who’ve been playing together since they were in diapers, taken thousands and thousands of swings and ground balls over the years together,” Remo said. “Next to being a parent, being a coach, you kind of get the goosebumps.”

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