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MVP International Alums Get Prepared

MVP International Alums Get Prepared

Several Division I baseball players take part in fall workouts
By David Driver, MVP Communications

WASHINGTON – The weather in the mid-Atlantic region is normally splendid this time of year and the fall of 2022 has not disappointed.

The cool weather and rainless days allow for college baseball teams to get outside and take part in instar-squad scrimmages and occasional exhibition games with other schools.

That is the case for Dylan Wilkinson, an alum of several trips with MVP International – a national leader in overseas excursions for young athletes in various sports.

Wilkinson is an infielder at Division I Longwood University in Farmville, Virginia and he will be a junior for the spring season in 2023.

“The fall has been really good,” he said in recent phone interview. “We have practice five days a week and we have intrasquad three of those days a week.”

Last year, Wilkinson hit .280 for the Lancers – the fourth-best mark on the team among regulars.

“We have 47 or 48 guys now so we have a big roster,” said Wilkinson, who played at Fairfax High in Northern Virginia. “We have been practicing a ton and lifting four days a week. It has been going pretty well and we should be pretty deep this year, so it should go well.”

Longwood, 20-33 last season, is slated to host a junior college, Bryant & Stratton College of Virginia Beach, on October 14 in an exhibition contest.

The Lancers will then host Division III Hampden-Sydney in another exhibition on October 21. The Tigers are in the Old Dominion Athletic Conference and their campus is just a few miles from Longwood.

The only Major League player to come out of Longwood was Michael Tucker, a first-round draft choice by the Kansas City Royals in 1992. He was an outfielder for 12 years in the majors for several teams and was a member of four postseason clubs.

Former Longwood pitcher Maceo Campbell appeared at the Single-A level this year for the Boston Red Sox.

Other former alums of MVP International trips now on Division I rosters include Kyle Novak of JMU; Matt Howat of William & Mary; Teddy Merritt of High Point; and O’Kelly McWilliams IV of Wofford.

Madison High product Novak, who will be a senior in 2023, led the Colonial Athletic Association in RBIs last year with 49 while hitting .292. The Dukes will play in the Sun Belt Conference in 2023.

 

Kyle Novak played in a wood bat league in Vermont this summer then joined the MVP team for its trip last month to central Europe.
Photo courtesy of JMU

 

Merritt, a graduate of McLean High, tossed the only complete game for High Point in 2022. He will be a junior in the coming season.

 

Photo courtesy High Point University
Teddy Merritt, a product of McLean High in Virginia and alum of MVP International, rears back to pitch for High Point.

 

McWilliams, a graduate of Flint Hill in Oakton, Virginia, appeared in seven games out of the bullpen in 2022 for Wofford.

 

O’Kelly McWilliams has been on five baseball trips with MVP International.
He is a pitcher at Wofford and has two more years of college eligibility left.

 

Both of his parents, his sister and grandmother were also along the summer before his freshman year of high school on his first tour with MVP.

“Looking back on the first one and how blessed you were to be able to go to Italy and spend that time as a family,” recalls McWilliams. “I am thinking at 14 years old, to be able to experience all of the things I was able to experience and see all of the cool history.”

Howat, another Madison High product, has led the Tribe pitching staff in appearances in his first three seasons in Williamsburg, Virginia. No William & Mary pitcher has ever done that four seasons in a row – something Howat has a shot at doing this coming season.

 

Matt Howat, who went on three tours with MVP International, led William & Mary baseball with 20 games pitched in 2022.

 

“Put your phone down and embrace it,” Howat says of his trips with MVP International.

Novak and Howat played at Madison High for coach Mark “Pudge” Gjormand, the Founder & Visionary of MVP International and a member of the National High School Baseball Coaches Association Hall of Fame.

His daughter, Sam, is Director of Baseball Operations & Executive Assistant to the Head Coach at Division I College of Charleston.

Her brother, Josh, was part of the baseball team at Division III Lynchburg in 2022 and another brother, Trevor, will be a senior for Madison High in 2023. All three of them are veterans of several MVP International trips.

Editor’s note: David Driver is the former sports editor of papers in Arlington and Harrisonburg in Virginia and Laurel and Baltimore in Maryland. He can be reached at @DaytonVaDriver and www.daytondavid.com. His book, “From Tidewater to The Shenandoah: Snapshots from Virginia’s rich baseball legacy,” written along with Lacy Lusk of Baseball America, is available on Amazon and on his website. So his book “Hoop Dreams In Europe: Americans Basketball Players Building Careers Overseas.”

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