The classes were scheduled, a dorm room was picked out and a roommate awaited Sean McMullen’s arrival on the LSU campus.
McMullen thought his dream was dead, so enrolling at LSU as any other freshman seemed like an acceptable fallback.
“If I enroll here, maybe I can walk on [to the baseball team],” McMullen thought. But that plan never became a reality.
An All-State selection in 2010 at Brother Martin, the undersized outfielder knew his strengths. His bat had some pop — especially for his 5-foot-8-inch frame. He hustled and was a hard worker.
He even showcased those skills at LSU’s annual baseball camp, where coach Paul Mainieri gave him some tough love during his senior season.
“I told him coming out of high school that he wasn’t ready to play at LSU,” Mainieri said. “If he went to a junior college, we’d monitor his progress and possibly invite him back later, which is what happened.”
A junior college?
McMullen was unaware. His parents were concerned. Their son had just completed four years at a prestigious New Orleans private school on the Alpha Honor Roll with a 3.75 GPA and held lofty goals for life after baseball.
“I felt junior college may hinder my acceptance into physical therapy school,” McMullen said. “I was oblivious to anything that went on in junior college. I was honestly close-minded about it.”
With only two weeks until classes started at LSU, Delgado Community College baseball coach Joe Scheuermann made his pitch.
Scheuermann was no stranger to McMullen. Brother Martin played its home baseball games at Delgado’s Kirsch-Rooney Stadium, and Scheuermann had followed McMullen’s progression since his sophomore season.
“That’s the kind of player I want in my program,” Scheuermann said. “I want a Division I-caliber player in my program.”
Scheuermann was accustomed to McMullen’s ignorance surrounding junior colleges. It’s a battle he’s faced in all of his 24 seasons as Delgado’s skipper.
Most of Scheuermann’s talks with prospective players and their families center around misconceptions that junior colleges are academically subpar institutions.
“Just because you’re coming to Delgado doesn’t mean you’re a bad student,” Scheuermann said. “You can take transferable credits and then move on in your college career academically as well as athletics.”
Still, McMullen was skeptical.
“It was one of the hardest sells I’ve ever had,” Scheuermann said. “He was a super student and he had it set in his mind that if he wasn’t going to play at LSU, he probably wasn’t going to play baseball.”
Somehow, Scheuermann piqued McMullen’s interest, and the veteran coach made a deal with McMullen.
“Look, Sean,” Scheuermann told him. “Give it a semester. Not even a semester, give it a couple weeks. If you don’t even like fall ball, you can transfer.’”
McMullen agreed.
Once he stepped foot on campus, it was clear McMullen wouldn’t be leaving. He quickly forged a bond with his teammates — some of whom he played with on travel baseball teams.
He garnered JUCO All-American honors in 2012 after hitting .452 with 21 doubles and nine home runs.
That same season, he was given the 2012 National Junior College Athletic Association Award for Superior Academic Achievement while maintaining a 3.8 GPA.
While McMullen said classes and academia have always come easy, there was another facet of his Delgado experience that readied him for LSU more than any textbook.
“Sean got 150 at-bats a year in two years,” Scheuermann said. “You can’t emulate game speed … when you put guys in game situations for 150 at-bats a year, they get better even if you don’t coach them at all.”
Scheuermann said he keeps tabs on McMullen throughout the season and tries to phone him at least once a week.
Don’t expect any coaching, though. Scheuermann said he’s more of a mentor for his former pupil.
“He’s very over-analytical,” Scheuermann said. “So when it’s going bad, I try to pick up the phone and make him laugh a little bit. When it’s going good, I try to humble him.”
McMullen said his plans to go to physical therapy school are still very much intact, although this semester’s academic gauntlet is particularly difficult. He plans to apply next year, because the start of the physical therapy program overlaps with baseball season.
He’s also the reigning LSU male Scholar-Athlete of the Year, an honor McMullen said is rooted in his beginnings at Delgado.
A beginning that almost didn’t happen. And a beginning that galvanized Scheuermann’s program.
“What Sean McMullen did for me is monumental,” Scheuermann said. “It’s opened doors now for me. Moms and dads around New Orleans will say, ‘He didn’t lose any ground scholastically … Not only did he break ground on the field, but in the classroom.”