Column: Crescenta Valley baseball prospect refuses to let football team down

In a world full of cynics and people who refuse to believe that someone can do something for the good of the team, let me introduce Brian Gadsby, a senior at Crescenta Valley High who has developed into one of the top pitching prospects in Southern California.

All summer, he focused on baseball. Not once did he show up for a football passing competition or weight training session even though he was the team’s standout quarterback. Few expected him to play football in his senior season, because he has a baseball scholarship waiting for him at UCLA.

Then, on the day after his travel team lost in the Babe Ruth World Series in Washington last month, he flew home, unpacked his bag, changed clothes and headed out to football practice.

“The reaction was surprise,” Gadsby said. “For some, they didn’t believe it. Even my best friends probably didn’t believe it.”

High school sports have become increasingly focused on preparing individuals for college or the pros, getting them exposure and marketing individuals and programs.

Only on the rarest of occasions do you hear the following words spoken from a top athlete: “I thought it was the right thing to do. It’s my senior year. I couldn’t just leave my team like that.”

With those comments, the 6-foot-2 Gadsby earned himself a special place in the hearts of his teammates and special appreciation from his coach, Paul Schilling.

“For our team to know this guy just wants to be here to give us a lift and be with his friends that he’s been playing with since he was a little kid is huge,” Schilling said.

The decision to play football just to have fun and be with his friends in his senior year should make UCLA fans excited for his arrival in a year.

UCLA Coach John Savage loves to recruit former quarterbacks and two-sport athletes for his baseball team. He likes their athleticism, toughness and leadership qualities. Gadsby will fit right in.

As a pitcher, with a fastball between 86 and 89 mph and an ability to release the ball from a variety of angles, he’s being billed as the Bruins’ next David Berg, who became an All-American pitcher after arriving as a walk-on with an attitude that no one and nothing was going to stop him from succeeding.

That’s Gadsby, an A student and top competitor whose charisma and unselfishness cause teammates to hover around him hoping his energy and enthusiasm rubs off on them. He was 9-2 with an 0.82 ERA in baseball as a junior. He also passed for 2,465 yards and 33 touchdowns. One assistant coach said of the slim Gadsby, “He has the arm of Aaron Rodgers and the body of Mick Jagger.”

Last week, in his season opener, Gadsby looked like a quarterback who had not taken a snap in a year. He lost the ball on a fumble; he was intercepted; he lost the ball on a poor handoff. Each time he came off the field with head held up, perhaps frustrated but never disillusioned or beaten. By game’s end, he had passed for 311 yards and three touchdowns in a 55-14 win over Verdugo Hills.

He joked that if he ever sees Bruins football Coach Jim Mora, he’ll tell him, “Hey, I can throw a football if you need a guy.”

Then he remembered that quarterback Josh Rosen from Bellflower St. John Bosco is set to arrive in Westwood.

“I think they’ll be fine,” he said.

Gadsby will be soon making a name for himself on the pitching mound, but spending a few months hanging out with friends on the football field in his last year of high school was important to him.

Take that, you cynics.

Twitter: LATSondheimer