Oglesby found complete package at McKendree

For Kale Oglesby, the Eldorado High School senior is getting all he could want and more after he signed scholarship papers to continue his baseball career at McKendree University recently.

Aside from a desire to play baseball collegiately with a family-type atmosphere and a pre-med program, the Bearcats were the complete package.

" I chose McKendree for a number of reasons," Oglesby said. "The first being that I wanted to play college baseball. That has always been a dream of mine and McKendree gave me an opportunity to do that. McKendree is also a great school and going into pre-medicine that was something that was important to me. I really like the coaching staff and from the first time I talked to them they were great to me and it really seems like they have a great family atmosphere in their program. So it was really a combination of those things that made McKendree stand out."

Oglesby has been a fixture at shortstop for Eldorado since he was a freshman. Oglesby, who earned Black Diamond All-Conference honors in football this past season where he was the Eagles' quarterback, started a majority of his games his freshmen year at catcher, but from his sophomore year on, he has played every inning at shortstop for the EHS.

The outgoing senior has a career .294 batting average and feels his commitment to the game of baseball should prove to be beneficial at the next level.

That doesn't mean Oglesby doesn't still have some things he feels he needs to improve on.

"I feel like I have always been a hard worker and I think that has shown in every aspect of my life so I would for sure consider that my strong suit. As far as baseball goes, I'd like to work on hitting some more and keep improving at the plate. I feel like I've come a long way from where I was when I started high school and I'm having a pretty solid spring but I just want to keep focusing on that and improving."

Michael Dann covers prep and college sports for the Southern Illinois Local Media News Group. Follow him on Twitter: @spydieshooter.