Written by Aerial Whiting
Freshman outfielder Jeremy Bohnett was straight off a five-month hike along the Appalachian Trail when he tried out for the Harding baseball team. It had been about a year and a half since he had last wielded a bat.
Born in Hawaii and raised in Seattle, Wash., Bohnett said he has played baseball his whole life. He got his start when he was 2 playing catch with his older brother, and he went on to play T-ball, coach pitch, little league, travel ball and high school ball, where he made All-State and All-League.
Bohnett said it had always been one of his goals to play college ball, and he got his chance in the fall of 2008 when he attended Point Loma Nazarene University in San Diego, Calif. However, he left PLNU at the end of the semester and took three semesters off of school so that he could reevaluate his life.
During his time away from college, Bohnett met several Harding graduates, and his sister visited Harding as a prospective student, so he became interested in attending Harding as well. He said he liked the idea of attending a Christian school and that the possibility of joining the baseball team was in the back of his mind.
Deciding to start at Harding in the fall of 2010, Bohnett embarked on his Appalachian Trail hike March of the same year, beginning in Georgia and ending in Maine. He had talked to a Harding graduate who had hiked the trail, and Bohnett, who had never backpacked before, said he thought it sounded like the “ultimate adventure.”
“I had always loved adventure, and I have always been kind of a free-spirited kind of guy and loved not knowing what’s next,” Bohnett said.
Apart from running a couple of times a week, Bohnett did little to train for his trip, deciding instead to get in shape as he went. Armed with a guidebook, tent, sleeping bag, clothes and a few other necessities, he set off on the trail by himself, covering about 17 miles a day at the beginning. He worked up to 26 miles a day and one day covered a distance of about 35 miles.
Bohnett kept a daily journal of his travels, which included such experiences as being caught in a thunderstorm at the top of a mountain and nearly being struck by lightning. Among his many positive experiences were the times that people showed benevolence on the trail, he said.
“I think one of the coolest things about the trail is the community, and the trail kind of really restored my faith in humanity,” Bohnett said. “There’s … this kind of phenomenon they call ‘trail magic,’ [which] can be anything, like any good deed that someone does for a hiker. So for example, I’d get to a road crossing and be really exhausted, and there would be a cooler just sitting there on the trail, and you’d open it and there would be just like Gatorades, ice-cold Gatorades or like snacks and stuff. Or you know, I’d get to a road crossing and there would be like a church group, and they’d be grilling burgers and stuff for hikers.”
Bohnett said he also enjoyed traveling with other people he would encounter on the trail. He completed his journey Aug. 12, and he flew to Arkansas immediately afterward.
Baseball tryouts were spread out over two days at the beginning of the school year, and between his hike and three semesters away from the sport, Bohnett said he “wasn’t in baseball shape at all.” He attended the first day of tryouts but decided not to return for the second day.
The next day while on his way to his 2 o’clock class, Bohnett unexpectedly ran into Assistant Baseball Coach Talley Haines, who asked if he was coming back to try out for the Bisons. Bohnett replied that although he loved the game, he did not think he should.
“[Haines] said, ‘No, you’re coming back,'”Bohnett said. “I said, ‘Why?’ He said, ‘’Cause, I mean, you’re a good player. You … seriously have a chance to be, like, middle of our lineup kind of guy.’ And I was just like, I didn’t believe it. I said, ‘Are you serious?’ And he said, ‘No, if I wasn’t serious, I wouldn’t have stopped and talked to you.'”
With that encouragement, Bohnett finished tryouts and landed his spot on the team. Recently, he has played designated hitter due to an injury he sustained about a month ago.
Looking to the future, Bohnett is switching his major in business management to a major in sports management. He said it is his dream to play pro ball but that he would like to work for a sports organization or start a sports complex.
While at Harding, Bohnett said he aspires to become a team leader.
“I think naturally I’m … a leader, and so I’m looking forward to getting older so I can be a vocal leader, but for now I feel all I can do is lead by example,” Bohnett said.
Bohnett said he believes this year’s team can go far in the Gulf South Conference and beyond to regionals and nationals.
“I think that we have the talent to win it all,” Bohnett said.
