With the fuse lit and time ticking away on the recruiting process, paperwork sent him may as well have been accompanied by a secretive, for-your-ears-only audio recording. Something like:
"Good morning, Mr. Phelps. You are being targeted by a southwestern institution of higher learning and also higher athletics. Your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to use your skills in both areas to thrive and survive two years in the Valley of the Sun. After doing so, your next billing will be determined at your discretion."
"This message will self-destruct in five seconds.."
Fortunately that last bit didn't happen, as Zane Phelps' decision required, and had already consumed much, much more time during a year which began last summer with him hardly seeing his own home.
"Last June I slept in my bed one time," he realled. "One night. So I was definitely on the road a lot last June, between basketball and football camp and two baseball tournaments! It was a busy summer."
And after reconsidering a previous commitment to South Mountain Community College-previously the post-Bayfield High School destination of alumnus Clay Miller-the now-graduated Wolverine senior stayed true to his thoughts of still playing baseball and studying around the Arizona metropolis. Phelps officially signed a National Letter-of-Intent to do so at nearby Scottsdale C.C., recalling another interaction from last year's off-season grind.
"We met one time back in August," Phelps said of Scottsdale Coach Alex Cherney. "He's a really good guy, and he's had a really successful program the seasons he's been the head coach. And he said he's looking for a guy to.play the corners and hit for power-he thinks that's what I can do, so I'm excited to be there!"
"I really wanted to be down in the Phoenix area-the best competition you can get in the nation, as far as juco," he noted. "I really liked the area, the coach, they have a good program-it just felt right."
"You visit a lot of colleges and it was what fit him well," said BHS Head Coach Jon Qualls. "We talked about it a little bit, and a coach and program that feels like it fits your personality, your style of play, is kind of what you're looking for. It sounds like that's what he found."
"We've coached him for years, and now.he's gone! It's definitely a where'd-the-time-go feeling," said father Dion Phelps, a 1994 BHS graduate. "It's been a great ride; these kids have had so much success.it's a humbling point when you realize, 'Wow, they're leaving! Leaving Bayfield-no more purple!'"
"It's definitely all worth it," Phelps said of the exhaustive process. It included a year which saw Phelps help Wolverine football win the Class 2A State Championship, then almost immediately suit up for one last Wolverine basketball run before lacing up the cleats for the now-completed Wolverine baseball slate.
"I'm really excited, like the place I'm going, and hope it will help me and take me where I want to go!"
The Fightin' Artichokes, truly a unique mascot if ever there was one, went 29-28 overall in 2016 and a seventh-place 19-21 in the Arizona Community College Athletic Conference before failing to repeat as NJCAA Division II, Region I champions. They lost a best-of-three to the Phoenix-based Gateway C.C. Geckos.
"Zane's one of those kids you don't come around very often; in my time playing four years of college ball I don't think I can remember anyone who could consistently hit the ball as hard," said Qualls. "So I think this college is going to be impressed with him when they get him on the field on a daily basis.and see what he can really do."
"He obviously has 'it'; there are several guys who have 'it,' and that's why we're having so many kids going on to the next level. To see them grow up and become good men and good athletes.it's icing on the cake to see them go on. It's something very few kids get to do, so it's pretty special."
