1 on 1 with South Brunswick’s Walker Jenkins

An injury changed what was supposed to be the best summer of his life. But what he took away from it is why he's one of the best
Jake Eichstaedt,

SOUTHPORT, N.C. (WWAY) – The date is May 5th. Moments after maybe the biggest heart break of his young life, a loss in the state championship winner-take-all game 3, unbeknownst to him, Walker Jenkins was seen on video cleaning up the dug out – leaving it better than he found it.

Adversity builds character, but it also can reveal it.

“It’s nice that someone caught it on camera, but that’s not why I did it,” says Jenkins, the #2 baseball prospect in the country according to multiple outlets. “I don’t want to act differently or do things differently just because I lost a baseball game. No one likes picking up trash. It’s not hard for me to clean the dug out.”

His South Brunswick Cougars took game 1 Friday 4-3. Vibes were good.

” After game 1, we thought we had it,” Jenkins reflects.

They dropped game 2 and game 3 4-2 and 11-6 respectively, after holding leads in both games. Vibes were not good.

“We came out the next two games and scored some runs, we were in a good spot. I think we were confident and I truly think we were the better overall team. They had some things go their way and caught some breaks but that’s baseball. There was not one person on that team that did not want to win the state championship. Everyone there contributed every way they could and gave 100% effort.”

“I hate losing more than I like winning. When we lost it was not fun.”

One of the reasons it hurt so much was because of the buzz around the team. More than just from the players, the support from outside the team was strong. Jenkins admits the players noticed it.

“The people that supported the baseball team last year – it was unmatched. You haven’t seen anything like that at South in a while,” says Jenkins. “It was really special. It meant a lot to the players and coaches. It was absolutely crazy how many people were coming out here to support us.”

Good things can come from a loss like that. Jenkins says he’s noticed a different fire from his teammates this off season, attacking training with a stronger fervor than before.

After all, he hates losing more than he likes winning.

Normally after a loss of this magnitude, it’s recommended to detach for a blip. A day, a few days, a week – most athletes would take time to recuperate mentally, physically, emotionally, and spiritually.

Apparently, not Walker Jenkins.

“I actually hit that night,” Jenkins says when asked how long he stayed away from baseball after the heartbreak loss. “Got home, wanted to hit, so me and my dad hit.  I hit every day. Whe n I say that – it’s not every other day. As long as I am not injured or sick, it’s every day.”

It’s evident Walker possesses a respect for America’s past time. It’s helped him become one of the best the game has to offer. MLB.com has Walker listed as the #5 prospect in America, and Perfect game ranked him the #2 high school player in the country.

The lanky lefty is a legitimate 5-tool player – possessing speed, arm strength, fielding range, the ability to get on base and hit for power all at or near the top echelons of the game.  Jenkins led the Cougars in batting average (.527), on base percentage (.628), home runs (10), doubles (13), triples (2) stolen bases (18), runs (49), hits (49), runs batted in (40), slugging (1.032). His monstrous numbers come from a blend of natural ability and a meticulous training regimen.

Walker says he is a big tee guy. He likes how you can slow down the swing and look at the mechanics. He says he’s a perfectionist, and that’s where it starts. He starts with 10 swings with each hand at different heights, totaling around 80 baseballs. Then he transitions in to soft toss, working on staying through the ball and hitting the ball where the pitch was placed. That’s a bucket of balls allocated to each side (soft toss and front toss). Then he begins to speed it up, hitting actual batting practice with varying amounts, trying to total 250 live swings.

He works out 5 times a week. 2 days of running, and then weight room. He works with Hudson Rose in Wilmington 3 times a week, where they tackle a lot of agility and quick-twitch muscle exercises to help with explosiveness. He lifts differently than baseball players, who he says try to avoid a lot of Olympic-style. He also likes lifting on his own.

To meet the high demand of energy and body recuperation Walker needs to sustain that effort, he has began his own meal prepping, meeting with nutritionists and his school athletic advisor about counting calories and making sure he’s putting enough fuel in his body to match the math equation of the fuel he burns.

He’s eating 4,200 to 5,000 calories a day. He tries to eat multiple sandwiches during school. He describes the process as ….. . He meal preps Sunday night. Hard boiling 20 eggs, sizzling bacon on the stove, sandwiched with toast. He supplements that with tree nuts as snacks, eating throughout the day, sometimes on the hour.

“I don’t think some people understand how hard I work sometimes. And that’s fine. I don’t expect them to. I don’t care if they do or not. If they did, I wouldn’t be doing what I’m doing. I enjoy it. I really do. Sometimes it takes a toll on my body and I have to make sure I maintain myself and my body. I work hard, Sir. Some people work hard because they are told to -I work hard because I enjoy it and I want to be the best.”

This continuous grind parallels professionals. Walker said it started for him after his first let down in baseball.

“I was 6 years old and I was playing at Bill Smith, some of the small parks down here in Southport. I had a chance to make the all star teams, ended up getting cut. Didn’t make the all star team,” Walker says as his face grimaces. “I was like ‘I don’t like that feeling’ even as a kid, I was like that’s something that’s not going to keep happening to me. So the competitiveness and the love for baseball came together at that time.”

“From about 7-years-old on baseball has been a huge priority in my life. After I got cut that year, I hit every day. I started playing travel ball at 8 and from there on out it was every day. Hitting then and hitting now and the things I’ve learned, how much more educated I am about the game has changed a lot. But that want to be the best and the drive ahs always been there.”

Fast forward 10 years later, the 17-year-old is a rising senior in high school, after losing the state championship game, ready to attack the summer circuit. He was off for a week after the high school season ended, then had a bad break (literally).

While in Cary participating for USA Baseball, he fractured a bone in his hand called the hamate bone. He describes it as a diving board, constantly bending and being stressed from motions like swinging a bat. He wasn’t sure exactly when it happened, but began to feel discomfort growing. He has surgery on it, where they remove the bone. Walker says he was swinging 2 weeks after surgery, but missed about a month and a half of baseball during a stretch that many scouts would say may be the most important time when it comes to his professional draft stock.

He began playing in August, participating in the Perfect Game All-American game that aired in ESPN at Chase Field in Arizona. From there he went straight to Florida, waking up at 2:30 in the morning to make a flight to participate in the USA baseball training. He had his first workout later that night.

“I like to pick a lot of people’s brains. Ask about their swing, what allows them to be successful, in Arizona and at the USA stuff. But one thing I really loved about Perfect Game was that we partnered with Make A Wish,” says Jenkins.

He was connected with the Moss family. They have a daughter who was in need of life-saving brain surgery. Together, they helped raise money for the surgery, and as much as Walker impacted the family, the Moss’s left an impact on him.

“They are just amazing people. They live in the Wilmington/Leland area,” says Jenkins. “You talk to them and you’re like … wow, just shut up and listen. Learning about what they’ve been through, it’s a very humbling experience. I previously mentioned I hurt my hand and I was like ‘man this is the biggest summer of my life and I can’t play’ and I was frustrated, very aggravated, just wanted to get back to it. Then you hear this story about how a girl has to have part of her brain removed just so she can live. And I’m like ‘ are you kidding me, Walker? You’re complaining about your hand that’s going to be better in a couple weeks … and these parents and child just want to live, be a normal kid… This is something that’s just so much more important than me or anything I’ve done.”

Also in Arizona, Walker got to visit a school for legal immigrants, with most of the kids speaking little to no English. But they connected through the love of the game. Perfect Game and Walker gifted the kids with T-shirts, a little glove, whiffle bats and balls, noting how big the smiles on the kid’s faced were. Once again, he realized how important this aspect of his platform is becoming to him.

“It looked like it was there favorite day every. We go in there , with abut 100 players. We’re playing, drawing, playing whiffle ball… it makes you think how fortunate you are and made me so happy I could make someone’s day like that.”

“I’d be lying if I said I wouldn’t rather be playing baseball than doing that stuff, but at the end of the day, I am so glad that I got to do that. As important as baseball is, this is just on a different level. I wasn’t necessarily going out and looking for that kind of thing, but I keep learning more and more that I really enjoy it. You go to something like that, you might think ‘I don’t want to be here’ but then you get there and it’s just eye opening. It’s one of those things – I wouldn’t trade this for the world. Seeing those kid’s faced and hearing the Moss’s story – I really think it’s changing me as a person. It’s making me think about life in a different way. That is probably what sticks out more to me this summer than anything else.”

Now, school has started, and Walker’s cross-country summer is over. His injury is healing on schedule, saying he plans on playing at the World’s tournament in Jupiter, Florida the first weekend of October.

He’s fully embracing the service aspect of what he can do with his platform. One counterpart of having a platform is just that, being someone of influence. Walker would in no way call himself an ‘influencer’, and even mentions he feels weird thinking that he’s ‘famous’.

“It’s cool!” says Walker. “I like that there are a lot of kids who look up to me and want to see me play and  be successful. But there are also some who try to talk to me just to try to take advantage for me. I try to be as kind to everyone as I can. I do try to be a good person to everyone. My parents have told me I’m going to have to learn to say no. There’s little kids asking me if the’yc an have my bat … and I want to give it to them – but I need my bat. Things like that – with all the cool popularity, people want something of yours to say they have it. There’s nothing wrong with that but disappointing people is not fun. People come watch me and want me to go 3 for 3 with 3 home runs. You don’t always do that. It’s tough, btu that’s part of it. Especially in baseball, I need to be able to accept that failure, move on, and just do the best that I can.”

“That’s been a difficult thing for me – learning to say no.”

One thing he says he’s never said no to – signing baseballs. He jokes he signed more autographs this summer than followers he has on social media. Between Twitter and Instagram, Walker has about 5,000. Luckily for him, Walker writes left-handed – while the fracture was in his right.

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