Wake Forest Athletics
Not Taking Anything For Granted
5/28/2002 12:00:00 AM | Baseball
May 28, 2002
By Sam Walker
Adam Bourassa's baseball experience has been a tale of two extremes. Coming out of high school he was the player nobody wanted. Today, he's the kind of player every college coach wishes he had and a big reason Wake Forest has been able to achieve its highest national ranking and a fifth straight 40-plus win season. The junior college transfer who hails from Apple Valley, Minn., has made quite an impact in his first season as a Demon Deacon. Furthermore, coach George Greer can boast that he could see it coming.
"I brought him here to play center field, to bat leadoff, to steal bases and play superb defense," Greer said. "When I saw him play in the Cape Cod League last summer I said, 'Oh my lord, he's really good, and he's going to be absolutely great for us.' He has not disappointed me at all. He's been exactly what we want a leadoff batter to be, what we want a center fielder to be, and he's a better person than he is a player, and he's a great player."
It's a potpourri of skills that has Greer singing Bourassa's praises. What jumps right off the stat sheet is his team-leading .411 batting average, which dropped from .430 after a 1-for-5 outing against Virginia Commonwealth in the last home game of the year. Going into that game, he ranked third in the ACC in hitting and was among the leaders in walks. Add to that his team-leading 20 stolen bases, 77 hits and 53 runs scored in 46 outings, and it becomes quite clear just how much of an offensive threat he has been. Defensively, he's committed just one error and rolled up 127 putouts. Even the casual baseball fan can understand the impressive nature of that collection of statistics.
But baseball didn't come naturally for Bourassa, at least not until lately. He well remembers being cut from the high school baseball team as a freshman. And after graduating from Apple Valley's Eastview High School, the only prospects of continuing his baseball career came in the form of an offer from a Division III junior college in Minnesota. It was a less than appealing offer at that. He ended up at Kishwaukee only because coach Mike Davenport saw him play in an American Legion tournament the summer following his high school graduation. Bourassa says he thinks Davenport saw him in two at-bats and that he may have had a hit in one of them. It was nothing spectacular, Bourassa recalled, but it was the break that allowed him to continue to play.
"I would not have been ready to play here as a freshman," Bourassa said. "It was way more instructional in junior college, and here it's more like you work to make yourself better."
In retrospect, two years at Kishwaukee was the right move at the right time. And since Davenport gave him the break he needed to continue playing baseball, Bourassa has made the most of each and every one that has followed. Wake was interested in Kishwaukee's Seth Hill, a left-handed pitcher who also signed with Wake Forest. But the Deacons were in need of a center fielder because of the departure of All-American Cory Sullivan. Davenport recommended Bourassa, who then made a recruiting trip and signed. "The day my coach told me (Wake Forest was interested) I was in the dugout and my body started shaking because I really didn't believe it," Bourassa said.
Then Bourassa made his own break last summer. He came into his own playing for Yarmouth-Dennis of the Cape Cod League. "A friend of ours who coaches for Yarmouth-Dennis Red Sox needed a center fielder so we told him about Adam and asked him to give him a chance," Greer said. "He went up there as a non-roster player and then made the all-star team. The Cape Cod League is the premiere college summer baseball league, and it's not unheard of to play as a non-roster player. But Adam was such a wonderful player they decided to keep him. To make the all-star team as a non-roster player is unheard of. I played for three years in that league, I coached for nine years in that league and was an assistant for one year, and for a person to do that it is virtually unheard of."
Bourassa hit .285 in the wooden-bat league and was awarded the 10th Player Award (Most Inspirational) for his play with Yarmouth-Dennis. The 10th Player Award is selected by the league's umpires and goes to a player who exhibits good sportsmanship, shows hustle on the field and does the most to help his team win. "I have some friends who are umpires up there and they make a conscientious effort to choose the best player," Greer said. "They take it very seriously."
"At the Cape I went as a temporary and didn't have a contract," Bourassa said. "I could have been there two weeks and then sent home. But I got chance to play right away because some guys weren't there yet. The first couple of weeks I was tentative, nervous because I really didn't know if I belonged. But I got a chance to play every day and felt more comfortable. I started off well and got a contract. The biggest thing about playing there was that it got me ready for here. There, you see the best college pitchers every day."
Bourassa also got to know some of Wake Forest teammates who were spending the summer playing in the Cape Cod League as well. Dave Bush, Ryan Johnson, Ben Clayton and Nick Blue all got to know Bourassa before he ever had settled in Winston-Salem. As for winning the 10th Man Award, Bourassa's only explanation is that he plays hard.
"I don't run my mouth, and I just play," Bourassa said. "I think the fact that I was a temporary, people would ask who's Adam Bourassa. Where's Kishwaukee College? I got that question so many times. But I just got things done, made the all-star team, and that was a great experience."
Greer said Bourassa has simply continued the same kind of play he had for Yarmouth-Dennis this season at Wake Forest and perhaps gotten even better.
"He goes back for the ball better than he did when he first got here," Greer said. "He hits for a little more power and has gotten stronger. He works on all the parts of his game every day. He's shagging fly balls with reckless abandon, he's playing the wind, playing the sun and positioning teammates and all the little things he does very well.
"Without him, we are certainly not as good as we are. He has set the tone many games going 4 for 4, stealing bases, making catches in the outfield, driving in runs, starting rallies with a double into left field, hitting a ball in the gap and running to stretch it into a triple. He'll make the big play at the plate and in the outfield."
The player that no one wanted is now the player Wake Forest would hate to do without. His emergence didn't take the usual path, and Bourassa still finds it difficult to talk about just how well he has played. Even with his .411 average, he still wants it to be just a little better. He's seldom satisfied. From his perspective, what he does could always be done a little better.
"I don't always hit the ball as hard as everyone else, but I go all out," Bourassa said. "As far as baseball goes, I've never been handed anything. I've always had to work extra hard and give that much more than the next person. I get things done, and I don't know how or why. But the complete player, I don't think I'm there yet."
