Chris Ferrick-Manley
Staff Reporter
As part of a ongoing series in the McDaniel Free Press, we will profile two interesting student-athletes; their lives on and off the field, their hobbies, and their interests. This issue we feature baseball player Brent Toms and volleyball player Katie Ferguson.
Toms, known as “BT” to his friends, is from Hagerstown, MD and is a senior. In high school, Toms played both football and baseball for four years. As the kicker for his high school team, he tied a 75-year old state record, kicking 11 extra points in a single game.
“One of the things I enjoy out of life is to play sports,” said Toms, “I basically live for that.” He earned several accolades for his achievements as a kicker including being named to all-conference and all-area teams. However, his dream of following in his father’s footsteps and playing football in college was cut short by a fluke injury during a weight training class following his senior season. Toms suffered a herniated disk and could no longer kick.
“It was pretty rough for me because of how much I love playing sports,” said Toms.
Before his injury he had been recruited by DII Catawba, where his father had gone, for both football and baseball, and had sent out recruiting tapes to other DI and DII schools.
The injury did not end his baseball career however, and Toms eventually chose McDaniel due to a combination of closeness to home, and the school’s reputation as a “College that changes lives.” Here he majors in Business Administration and hopes to maybe work for his father someday who owns Dynamark Security Systems, a company that sells video surveillance and alarms.
Apart from his extra point record, Toms considers one of his most memorable athletic achievements to be a home run he hit off Nick Adenhart. Adenhart is currently in the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim organization and has spent time in the major leagues itself.
In contrast, Toms considers his most embarrassing moment on the field to have occurred when he got doubled up off first base in a summer league game when he lost track of how many outs there were. In fact, he ran all the way around the bases and thought he scored.
“I felt pretty [stupid],” said Toms.
Off the field, Toms enjoys playing Xbox, hanging out with his friends, and going out places. Outdoors, he enjoys wakeboarding, fishing, rifle and black powder hunting, and four wheeling.
On television he watches Entourage, Home Improvement, Fresh Prince of Bel Air, and Orioles and Redskins games. His family is also season ticket holders at Fedex Field. His taste in music includes a little bit of everything as well including hiphop, rock and country.