Former STJ star Robertson gets shot at D-I baseball with Ragin' Cajuns

By TIM GAYLE

The recruiting period lasted just two days.

The signing period was tentatively set for April 15 but could actually come months later.

Welcome to the new coronavirus era of college scholarships, in which the only thing that is certain is the uncertainty.

“My whole goal was, if the season would have played out like it was supposed to, I would have waited until the end of the season to commit,” Shelton State Community College sophomore T.R. Robertson said. “But with all the corona stuff happening, and I already knew Lafayette … was a great school and they’re a great program, when they offered me all I had was Tennessee Tech and AUM. I knew there was a chance other schools were going to be in contact, but I’m not going to pass up on Lafayette, hoping something else comes.” 

When Robertson originally signed with Shelton State out of St. James back in 2018, the goal was a little different.

“More so in high school, the SEC schools stick out,” Robertson said, “and just the name – Auburn, Mississippi State – you feel like they’ve got to be the best schools and they get more attention than Louisiana-Lafayette. I didn’t even know until they started recruiting me that they were number one in the nation (in late March of 2014). 

“I guess my goal was I’d like to go to an Auburn, an Alabama, some place like that, but after going to Shelton and learning more things and becoming a better ball player, I realized it doesn’t really matter where you go. Lafayette is a great D-I program, so I’m just blessed I can go there.”

Signing day finally did arrive on Wednesday for Robertson, who held a signing “ceremony”  -- alone -- at his parents’ house by signing his letter of intent to play for the Ragin’ Cajuns in 2021.

“He really would have loved to have gone to a school closer and if nothing (like the coronavirus pandemic) had happened and the season had went like it was (going), I’m sure the Auburns and the Alabamas would have given him a good look,” said Prattville Christian Academy coach Tommy Goodson, a neighbor who was an assistant coach at St. James during Robertson’s time with the Trojans.

Instead, it was a whirlwind courtship, abbreviated and altered by the coronavirus pandemic. Robertson had emerged this season as one of Shelton State’s top hitters in slugging percentage (.519), home runs, stolen bases and hits, but was just entering conference play and attracting college recruiters when play was halted in mid-March.

“We had a conference game the day before they canceled the NBA season,” Robertson recalled. “That morning, they had canceled all college baseball besides juco. We played our first conference series versus Marion. At the end of the game, Coach (Bobby Sprowl) told us we’re going to take this series off and see what happens. And we’ll meet back as a team after spring break. We get a call a couple of days later that the season was canceled.

“Going into conference play, we had already faced Chipola and Northwest Florida and they were top five teams, so we had already seen the best pitching we were going to see. I was feeling pretty good about myself.”

Recruiting was thrown into chaos. The NCAA suspended the signing period – which runs from mid-November through Aug. 1 – and tentatively set April 15 as the date signing could resume. 

“Alabama and Auburn have always been asking about him,” said Tyler’s father Brian. “Sprowl has always said if he learns how to protect himself at the plate, he’s a pro guy. He’s an SEC defender, already. The question is, can he hit enough to protect himself? Obviously, the larger Power Five schools were in a tough situation, not knowing how this was going to play out.” 

That’s because college baseball programs divide their 11.7 scholarships among 27 scholarship players and many of those 27 are supplemented by academic money. The NCAA’s decision to extend players an extra year of eligibility means that seniors who received academic stipends will be graduates without stipends in 2021, throwing a level of uncertainty through every collegiate baseball program.

“Everybody’s getting a year back for juco and I was a sophomore this year, so when I go to Lafayette I’ll still be a sophomore,” Robertson said. “If I wasn’t lucky to get (an offer from) Lafayette and I didn’t have any other offers, it would have been a good thing to get a year back because I could have just gone back to Shelton.”

First-year Louisiana coach Matt Deggs and his staff had seen Robertson during the offseason and extended an offer in early March, giving him two days to decide whether he would commit to the Ragin’ Cajuns.

“It was speedier than I would have liked, but it was where I wanted to go, also,” Robertson admitted. “So it was a win-win.”

For Brian, the offer from the Sun Belt Conference power settled the issue of where his son would continue his collegiate career.

“I like (Deggs’) style of baseball,” Brian Robertson said. “Tyler kind of fits that. Lafayette would have been in the mix no matter who was calling.”

Goodson has no doubt that if the 2020 baseball season had been a normal one, there would have been plenty of more offers to entertain. 

“He is one of the best all-around athletes I’ve seen in a long time,” Goodson said. “He really was torn coming out of high school about playing football or baseball because he had so much success in football his last year and a half at St. James. He’s 6-foot-3, fast as lightning, an extremely good athlete. He’s got a cannon for an arm, probably one of the best outfielders I’ve been around, and can steal bases with the best of them. I know he could play college football. He really wanted to play. If somebody like Troy or Jacksonville State would have said you could play both, no problem, that’s where he would have been.”

Robertson still has another option waiting when the Major League Baseball draft is held, but it’s highly unlikely he’ll change his mind. Last year, the 40-round draft offered six-figure signing bonuses to more than 100 athletes drafted after the first five rounds. This year, the draft will be changed, with some speculating that a maximum of five rounds will be held and all free agent signing bonuses after the last round capped at $20,000. 

“I was hoping to get drafted as well, but that (coronavirus) kind of screwed that up as well,” Robertson said. “I was going to go to some MLB workouts they do, regional things, and when they changed the draft to five to 10 rounds, I was like, that’s not going to work. So I’m just glad I’m going to go to a good program and get an extra year back, so I’ll be draft-eligible as a sophomore (in 2021).”

For a lot of athletes, the 2020 season has been a time of turmoil and upheaval. Robertson made the most of his abbreviated season and will have an opportunity to contribute at a respected four-year program next season on the field while taking steps toward graduation off of it. 

“When I get to Lafayette, I’ll be done – if I stay for my junior year -- with my school work,” he said. “I have all my math, all my classes out of the way. All I have to work on now is what my major will be.”