It was just two weeks ago that LSU defeated Clemson to claim its first national title in football in over a decade. The whole state of Louisiana was shutdown in celebration of the Tigers’ victory. For most players and staff, this is a period of celebration and to take in what they have accomplished, except for one member of the team.
As the saying goes, as one door closes, another one opens. In this case, as one season comes to a close, another one begins. For freshman Maurice Hampton, he has taken a 180-degree turn. There was no time off taken between the two sports for the freshman outfielder and defensive back. No matter the sport, Hampton has shown nothing but dedication to each of the two sports and it is why LSU Baseball coach Paul Mainieri praised him so much.
“My understanding is he interacted with the baseball players frequently on campus,” Mainieri said. “It’s really refreshing to me to see a youngster that is that committed and dedicated and loves the game that much.”
For the dual-sport athlete Hampton, it was never a question of is it going to be baseball or is it going to be football. Hampton had his mind set from the get-go that he was going to play both at the collegiate level.
“LSU was always a dream school of mine,” Hampton said. “For me, I made it known that for whatever school decided to recruit me that I am a two-way deal, and LSU is the perfect school for that.”
Despite its fairy tale start, LSU was not always certain. Coming out of high school, the Tennessee native was tempted to forgo his collegiate career, including football as a whole, and start his journey to the major leagues with an outstanding offer of $1.8 million.
“Mo (Hampton) loves baseball. He turned down a large signing bonus to come to LSU. He was constantly coming over in the fall to hit in the cages on his own time,” said Mainieri.
As the wear-and-tear of football season took its toll, the highly talented defensive back started seeing the playing field a lot more often which limited the time that he was available for baseball.
“I always got in the cages on Sunday’s,” Hampton said. “During football season, I’m focusing on football and the same goes for baseball. It’s just how it has to be, but I make up for the time when I can.”
Football and baseball provide the two-way athlete with different life experiences.
“Failure, I mean you fail a lot over here with baseball and I feel like that keeps me motivated to keep working hard and doing it over and over again,” Hampton said.
As the baseball season quickly approaches, Hampton looks to take advantage of the time before the season starts to solidify his spot in this young but talented Tigers team.
“I definitely have a lot of ground to make up for,” Hampton said. “I’m going to do what it takes to be out there on opening day.”