At 11-years-old, Hutto Middle School sixth grader Quayde Hawkins has enough passion for baseball to get national attention. His latest accomplishment is an invitation to play on the EvoShield Canes travel team.
EvoShield is a sports company based in Athens that designs form-fitting protective gear for everything from baseball to hunting.
The 2015 season will be the first time a national 12-U team is featured by EvoShield. Canes baseball is a non-profit organization designed to develop high school players to play at the collegiate level. Hawkins’ team is another step on that ladder of climbing to a successful baseball career.
“It is a huge privilege,” Hawkins father, Trey, said. “What it’s going to do is offer him the experience to play better ball players.”
Hawkins begins playing on the Canes team in January, which consists of players from all over the east coast—even as far as New Jersey. The Canes will travel and play weekend ball in New York, Virginia, Kentucky, Louisiana and Florida.
One of the privileges of being on the Canes team is discounted EvoShield gear. The team is even set to debut the first EvoShield batting helmets.
“The caliber of talent he’s going to be seeing—he’s either going to raise his talent or get left behind,” Trey said.
Based on Hawkins’ track record—from playing on the 2014 All American 11-U team and Georgia Force Baseball—he won’t likely have too much of a problem.