David Villar Analysis

“Did you see the 15 year old who hit the game winner for American Heritage last night? He’s not even a freshman and he’s already playing with the big boys.” The name of this baseball prodigy is David Villar. Villar was born in Atlanta, Georgia, but is of Cuban descent which can be easily noted from hearing his heavy accent. Villar moved to Pembroke Pines when he was just a couple months old and lived there until recently when he moved to Tampa to take on the next journey in his athletic life. When asked when he started to play the sport he responded, “I was 2 ½ years old when I started to play, I don’t even remember any point of my life without baseball.” In the 16 years since first picking up the bat he’s won multiple accomplishments such

as two-time state champion and 2012 national champion.
Villar says that the baseball field is like his second home and told me that he treats the field with the same respect as his home. When I asked him what the field meant to him, his eyes lit up and he started speaking with a type of confidence and directness that I have never heard from him before even though I’ve known him for 5 years now. “The field is my biggest teacher in life; each base is a step that I must go through to reach home plate, and the grass is the distractions that I have to overcome in order to reach my goal.”
After his incredible high school career at American Heritage, Villar decided to take his talents to the University of South Florida in order to get one step closer in his pursuit of becoming an MLB player one day. Villar was also recruited by other top-tier Universities such as UF, Duke, and UNC Chapel Hill, but ultimately chose USF because of how close it was to home and because of the direction it is heading with the baseball program. Playing in the MLB has been a dream of his for over 10 years now, but he told me that it’s actually not a dream now. “Man, I’m 18 now, I’m not the 12 year old kid that used to play for fun anymore. I’m all in, playing in the MLB isn’t a dream now, it’s my goal, my home plate, and I will reach it”.
“First base is like the first step in anything, it’s the foundation, before I score I have to walk through every base, and this happens to be the first one” Villar’s analysis of the game and the depth he goes to convey his message shows just how much he knows about it.

I then asked him what his motivation to succeed is and he had one quick answer, his family. His father and mother got divorced a couple of years back, but neither one has stopped supporting him in all his endeavors. He said that both are always there for all his games and that every time he is at home plate getting ready to hit his homeruns he hears his mom scream his name and cheer him on. When it comes to preparation, Villar takes it extremely seriously. “I haven’t had any serious injuries to be honest, the most time I was out was 2 games for a sprained ankle and then I was good to go. Preparation is probably the most important thing, I can’t imagine what missing a season must be like.” When he said this his tone turned very serious and it was easy to tell that it is something he just does not play around with after seeing multiple teammates go down because of bad preparation and careless behavior. He told me he warms up for every game the same way and keeps a routine that works for him. He arrives to games an hour in advanced to run, throw, and hit in order to get a sweat going and be ready once the first pitch

comes.
We then moved on to second base in which he includes traveling, training, and practicing. Villar said that the travel he is going to experience at USF is nothing like what it was during high school, but since he’s played for team USA he thinks he can adjust to it quickly since he has had previous experience with it. “The travel is fun, it’s great for team bonding and you get the chance to visit various cities, but there’s nothing like staying home and playing in front of your home crowd”. Villar told me he feeds off the crowd’s energy and that he hopes the fans at USF will be just as electrifying and hyped as they were at American Heritage. He told me that the biggest hassle of traveling is all the packing that they have to do and how quickly everything happens since there are trips that are sometimes only two days and then they are back home.
“Practice and perfecting my craft is what got me to the point I am at today. I am so focused and locked in into what I do that sometimes I get into arguments with teammates because they don’t have the same drive and fire as I do.” He said that in American Heritage a lot of his underclassmen teammates didn’t take it as seriously as he did and it got to a point that as captain of the team he talked to the coaches and decided to throw some kids off the team. I can tell from his bitter tone that he expects everyone on their A-game and if not then you’re simply out. At USF there’s 5am practices twice a week and then three lifting days per week. He says there is also conditioning in which the players have to run insane amounts and once they’re done there is nothing they want to do but relax. “I’m not the best nor the most talented player, but I am usually the hardest worker, which is why I succeed in the game and in the relationships with my coaches.”
Next up was third base. Villar told me that he believes this is the one base that either makes or breaks a team. He told me that offensively once a player is on third base, it is the team’s responsibility to get that player home and defensively it is the team’s job to do whatever it takes in order to stop the player from getting home. “I’ve played first and third base, but the responsibility that comes with third is on another level, it’s the toughest for sure.” Aside from the literal meaning of third base during the game, he told me that third is where he includes playing, teamwork, and communication.
“Playing the game is what it’s all about, all the preparation, motivation, and training, come together for those 2 hours.” Teamwork and leadership extremely important to Villar. He told me that he thinks the reason as to why the high school baseball team didn’t three-peat as champions was because of a lack of leadership from his part. I could note that he was becoming dejected talking about the 2014 loss in the regional finals to their rivals. “Toughest moment so far man, they dominated us and I play like trash, it was a tough one to swallow for sure, but it motivates me now.” The team was extremely talented and even though he was a junior he believes that as the team’s best player it was his job to lead and failed to do so. “I didn’t play well and I was just out of it, there was no energy in the dugout either, it was like we went to lose that game, but I put it on me. It was the first time in my life that the thought of leaving this game rolled through my head, I’m not a quitter, but I was that depressed”. Villar went on to tell me that he had meetings with the coaches and players and they all motivated him to rise up and come back next year stronger than ever before. It took him about a month or so to get back out and practice for the next year. After the off-season he sought out to become a better leader overall and he believes that he became one during his senior year. “Our team last year wasn’t great, we had a lot of new freshman players and it was a rebuild, the end of an era in which we accomplished great things. I do think however that I helped them build towards the future, mostly with the freshman players. They went through tough losses that will help them next year. I think they’ll be taking another title to Heritage real soon.” It is obvious that Villar has a lot of school pride and loves his high school team, he was thankful for his time there and no matter how far he goes in his career he’ll never forget where his competitive career started.
Communication is another important part of the game that he includes in his third base. He explained to me that baseball is a language, just like any other sport. “We have sayings that the coach will yell as instructions and then we have signs that our pitcher uses in order to coordinate his pitches with the catcher.” Aside from the communication within the game, he also told me that all the players have a specific chat they use to talk about their performance. Villar then went on to tell me a story of the one time he actually witnessed a fight between teammates. “I remember as a freshman there two guys just went at it, it was pretty insane. They both got injured and suspended from the team and it hurt us. He also went on to say that there are times in which he doesn’t get along with all his teammates and more than once he’s thought about going at them when they make dumb comments or just don’t care about the game the same way he does, but then he thinks it through and realizes that he can’t be getting suspended, for his own good and for the good of the players that really care about the team’s success. Communication is key to Villar, and he hopes that he’s never involved in a miscommunication with a teammate that can hurt the team’s success.
Finally, we’re at home plate. “Home plate is the end, it’s where we see if we win or lose, if we learned, and most importantly, where memories are created.” “Winning is great, and losses are lessons.” He told me that a former coach of his whose name was Arturo Corona taught him that. “He was an amazing man, besides my dad, he was the one who taught me everything about the game, and life as a whole.”
Villars favorite memory is of course winning back to back state rings and being named national champions. “It was amazing, I felt on top of the world and you already know I walked around with those rings on for a while”. The rings he is talking about are the enormous championship rings, they give to the winning teams, it’s like an individual trophy for each player. His worst memory came exactly one year later when they got beaten by their rivals in which he calls his worst game ever. “I already told you it was hard man, but you know, I learned, I became better and tougher because of it.” Hearing this quote from him made me realize that his entire “losses are lessons” idea is something that he takes very seriously. Villar represents what a true “student of the game” really is.
Very few people have a future as bright as Villar’s. Not only is he a great person, but his drive and pursuit of excellence is almost unparalleled. Hearing him answer questions and explain what the game means to him reminds me of interviews that the great Kobe Bryant has done about his love for basketball and how it seems that there’s a fire lit inside him.
Villar hopes to be playing in the MLB after his junior year of school since 3 years is the minimum number of years a collegiate baseball player must play before applying for the draft. Players in the MLB make an average of $4 million per year, but Villar is no average player, he’ll be making much more than that. “The money would be great I’m not going to lie, but that’s not what it’s about. I’ve been playing this game since I was 2 ½ years old, it’s my passion. I can’t even imagine the feeling of what my first at bat in the pros will be like, but I’m excited and confident.” Note how Villar said what the first at bat “will be like”, and not “would be like”, this just demonstrates the type of confidence he has in himself and just how driven he really is. He can’t even remember life without baseball, or the field. He never takes anything for granted either and he just hopes he can continue to call the field his home for many years to come. “The field is my biggest teacher in life; each base is a step that I must go through to reach home plate, and the grass is the distractions that I have to overcome in order to reach my goal.”