Article from the Herald Star by Mike Mathison
WEIRTON – The Nogay brothers are going in different directions, doing the same thing.
Older brother Eddie is headed to Washington and Jefferson and Max will venture to West Virginia University.
The Madonna High School graduates, who had different decisions to make, will play baseball.
“I was trying to keep my options open, but I knew I wanted to play baseball,” said Max. “When I came into high school, that’s what I had my mind set on. I had some offers to go wrestle, but after I was invited down to WVU, I knew that’s where I wanted to spend the next four years and hopefully contribute.”
Max is a two-time West Virginia Class AA-A state wrestling champion.
“Wrestling is a really physically demanding sport,” he said. “I enjoyed it over the past 14 years of my life. I really learned a lot of great life lessons – determination and discipline. But, baseball is what I want to do.
“I’m really passionate about baseball. What’s bad about an 80 degree summer day playing baseball? I really enjoyed wrestling. I think I have gotten the most out of wrestling compared to any other sport.
“Wrestling is more of an instinctive sport and baseball is more of a thinking man’s game. In wrestling you go by feel, although you have to know what to do in certain situations. In baseball, during pre-pitch you’re thinking ‘where am I going to go with the ball? If the pitcher throws one outside, where am I going to hit this ball?’ ”
Eddie’s decision came down to location – W&J or Johns Hopkins.
“It was a very difficult decision,” he said. “I had gone through a long process of applying to several academically elite schools and when it came down to make the final decision, whether to go to a school for academics which was farther from home, or continue my athletic career, it was a pretty close call, but I am happy with my decision.
“When I got all my letters back I immediately eliminated some that were too far from home. My dad and I went on visit to Johns Hopkins to see the campus and it was beautiful.
“But, for a lot of different reasons, we decided to stay close and have the opportunity to stay close to home and to have the opportunity to continue to play baseball at W&J was the best option for me.
“It came down to playing ball at Johns Hopkins, playing ball at W&J or going to Pitt’s Honors College. It’s just the fact that Baltimore is a big city and is kind of far away and I want to stay close to my parents and stay close to Max and Jen (triplet sister Jennifer Nogay, who will attend Pitt.) That was the determining factor.
“When I thought about it a lot and talked it over with my coaches and my dad, I realized I haven’t reached my full potential yet. I think to stop after my senior year and always wonder what could have been instead of trying to take my game to the next level and see what I can do would have been a mistake.
“That’s what I did with my application process. You only get to go to college once. I wanted to make the most out of it and really evaluate all my options.”
Head coach Jeff Mountain holds a 183-114-1 record (.616) with the Presidents, including a 156-71-1 mark (.686) since 2005. They are 32-10 and will get after it Friday in the NCAA Division III Mideast Regional in Marietta.
“He is very soft spoken, but has a serious demeanor about him,” said Eddie, who will major in political science. “He’s such a great guy. Coach Mountain is the type of guy I really want to play for.”
Both were three-sport athletes for the Blue Dons – football, wrestling and baseball.
The football team finished 14-0 in December to win the Class A state title. The Dons were the runners-up when they were juniors and made it to the state semifinals as sophomores.
Both were four-year lettermen in wrestling.
The baseball team lost in the state semifinals a year ago.
“I went to a Kansas City Royals pro tryout last summer and I saw WVU there and was invited to go to another pro tryout in Morgantown and WVU saw me there, too,” said Max, who will major in exercise physiology. “I contacted them early in the summer and they contacted me after that. We talked during football season and they invited me down after football season was over.
“I met the coaching staff and some of the players and everything kind of clicked. My dad was impressed with the head coach (Greg Van Zant, just finishing his 16th year), as was I. He was impressed how the coach went about handling the baseball players.
“This whole process was kind of confusing between schools recruiting me for wrestling and baseball. On the way to the state wrestling tournament, that’s when my dad and I made the decision I was going to play baseball for West Virginia.”
Madonna baseball coach Jeff Baire and assistant coach Luke Myers put together a skills DVD for Eddie.
“That’s one of the reasons how I received a lot of my contacts,” said Eddie. “I want to thank them for that.”
The brothers were in unison when it came to people they wanted to thank.
“We want to thank our dad for all the hard work and dedication he’s put in with us. He’s been so supportive, it’s been unbelievable,” they said. “We also want to thank Mr. Kenny Pitchok for hitting ground balls and pop flies to us when we were little and all the coaches we’ve had since T-ball.
“We want to thank our mom for putting up with all of this all the time. She has been such a tremendous support system for us. We also want to thank our sister Jen for everything.
“We want to thank coach Baire, coach Myers, coach Provo (Tim Provenzano), coach Spazz (Eric Sperlazza) coach (Jeramie) Nagy, Tim Welsh, all of our past coaches, all of our teammates and everyone who has supported us in everything we have done.”
(Mathison can be contacted at mmathison@heraldstaronline.com)
