Eastern baseball coach Jim Schmitz owes former football coach Bob Spoo a huge favor.

In his last recruiting class in 2011, Spoo’s final year in charge of Eastern’s football program, he signed 6-foot-3, 220-pound defensive end from Middleton High School in Tampa, Fla. – Demetre Taylor.

Taylor, who was a two-sport athlete during high school, playing football and baseball, faced a problem when he began practicing and lifting with the football team.

“I asked myself how I would be able to balance school, baseball and football,” he said. “Actually not even baseball yet. It was how could I handle school, football and my social life.”

Entering his first year at Eastern, Taylor knew he would not play during the 2011 season, being red-shirted, he said.

But Taylor stuck around, still participating in practice, but not as much being a red-shirt, with the rest of his teammates.

Balancing school and the ferocious football schedule, one of the biggest obstacles Taylor encountered was being nearly 1,000 miles away from his mother Joyce.

“Leaving my mom in Tampa – I’m a huge momma’s boy – that was my biggest challenge when I was first here being away from her,” Taylor said.

He adjusted, though, from being away from home and also getting used to the hectic life of being a student-athlete.

The Eastern football team ended its season with a 2-9 record. Spoo retired after his last game on Nov. 12, 2011, and a month later Taylor decided football was no longer in his future.

Before the semester ended, heading into winter break, Taylor had a conversation with one of his coaches Mike Lynch.

“I just thought about the pros and cons about playing football and baseball and the amount of banging my shoulders were getting playing defense,” Taylor said.

Taylor sought advice and called his coaches from high school and his family back in Tampa.

He had options, he still had three years of eligibility left for baseball and if that did not work out he could return to football with two years left of eligibility.

But the one person that Taylor listened to the most was his mother, he said.

“My mom believes in me when no one else does,” Taylor said. “She said I could further my career with baseball more than I could with football.”

It was final. Taylor would no longer pursue a football career at Eastern, which surprised his coaches, he said.

“I’m from Florida and the team had a lot of guys from there, so there was kind of a shock from the coaches, like a Florida kid switching to baseball hadn’t really happened,” Taylor said.

Taylor had gotten bigger since he was first recruited, which led to a position change for him, from defensive end to linebacker.

Taylor said the prospect of having to put his body in harms way did factor in his decision to no longer play football and only stick to baseball.

“I actually need my body for baseball, I need to throw,” Taylor said. “So, I wasn’t like (Cameron) Berra out there, where I would only kick, I would be out there tackling people. So, I was like banging up my body and playing both? That would be tough.”

He was not able to, but Taylor wanted to mirror some of his sports’ heroes growing up, who also played baseball and football.

“I wanted to follow behind a couple of my idols Bo Jackson and Deion Sanders especially because he’s from Florida playing baseball and football and I wanted to be an All-American in both,” Taylor said.

Now, just because Taylor has opted baseball over football does not mean he loves it more.

He began playing baseball as a toddler, the age of three, Taylor said. Then came football when he turned seven.

During high school, he could never play baseball year round because Taylor’s summer consisted of preparing for football in the fall.

He said being able to focus on one sport now is comforting as he is learning more and more about the game, but football will always be on his TV over baseball.

“I love playing the game of baseball, but I love football,” Taylor said. “You’ll never hear me say I love baseball.

With a laugh, Taylor said, “I can’t watch baseball.”

Aldo Soto can be reached at 581-2812 or asoto2@eiu.edu.