The Record Newspapers - Hometown News For Orange County, Texas

An outstanding student athlete at Little Cypress Mauriceville will be changing colors from green to blue beginning later this year. Senior Dean Reynolds signed his scholarship on Wednesday, May 3, to attend and play baseball at Columbia University in the city of New York.

Reynolds is a four-year letterman in baseball at Little Cypress Mauriceville. As a junior Dean was the starting tight end and punter on the varsity football team and became the quarterback for the Bears during this past season his senior year.

Head Football Coach Eric Peevey commented during the signing ceremony that Reynolds injured his shoulder during the football game with Vidor and continued to play not only the rest of that game but through the remainder of the season. "Dean bit his lip and went to work for the team. This was at the same point that he was finding out about Columbia and the opportunity to play college baseball there. Dean could have said, coach I am just going to focus on baseball, but he looked around at his teammates and said I am in it to win it I'm in it until the finish of it guys, and he stayed through to the end," Peevey reminded.

A celebration cake for Dean Reynolds who signed his scholarship to play baseball at Columbia University where he will be attending beginning this Fall

Reynolds and LCM baseball coach Hunter Hagler have worked together since Dean was a sixth grader. Hagler praised Dean, "Seven to eight years seeing you coming up and just growing as a person and growing as an athlete has been something special for me, it means the world to me. There's not enough words that I can say to actually thank you. Never once was I ever questioned, never once did you ever have any doubts about me and what I was saying and how we wanted to go about different things. Dean, I can't thank you enough for want you've done for me and this program. You've set the example for anybody else that comes to this athletic program."

In his closing comments Reynolds thanked his coaches and his teammates. "I love baseball. Coach Hagler gave me the opportunity to be able to prove myself and I'm glad he said I did it well. So, I thank him for the opportunity. Coach Peevey came here and gave me a new sense of competitiveness and drive. He and the other coaches are good coaches to have because they really pushed me every day. My friends and my teammates I love them all. I came out because I knew they would come out too and do it all for me. I loved it and I enjoyed my time with them," Reynolds concluded.