Jonny Homza
Two months after winning Gatorade Alaska Player of the Year honors and leading South High School to the ASAA state championship, the smooth shortstop has been named to the 2016 Area Code Games next month in Long Beach, California.
“I’m working really hard and playing the way I know how and that’s all anybody can really do,” he told me. “Baseball is a very humbling sport. I mean, if you fail 7 out of 10 times you’re considered good, so if you get too cocky you’re just setting yourself up for failure.”
Homza will represent the Pacific Northwest for the Kansas City Royals and Arizona Diamondbacks in the Area Code Games. The national event includes the top 200 players divided into eight regional teams.
“It does feel good to get recognized as a player and it’s very exciting to be able to experience all these cool things,” he said.
Players are typically nominated by a scout and then participate in a tryout. Homza was nominated by Tony Wylie of the Alaska Baseball Academy who also works as a scout for the D’backs.
“It was kind of his coming out party,” Wylie said of the tryout. “I kept hearing guys say ‘No way this kid is from Alaska.’”
Homza is the third Alaska player and first position player to be named to the Area Code Games, which date back to the 1980s. The other Alaskans to earn invitations were pitchers Max Karnos and Johnny Meszaros.
“I do think that baseball in Alaska is getting a lot more credibility and is able to produce a lot more talented baseball players, including more position players,” said Homza, who has committed to the University of Hawaii.
