Cape’s Austin Elliott uses weights to prepare for baseball future

Austin Elliott will enter the Cape High baseball season this spring with a Division I scholarship, a promising future and a chance to impress professional baseball teams that have been scouting him, but he is not taking any chances. Instead, he is using the off-season to prepare for the challenge with intense weightlifting workouts designed to make him a bigger, stronger player. So far his progress has been excellent, and if work ethic is a sign of things to come, he is well on his way to accomplishing his goals.

Austin displayed his skills early in his career at Cape, starting as a freshman and achieving first-team all-state and all-conference as a sophomore outfielder. He also connected that same year with 25 hits, showing he was a rounded player and an asset to the team. His junior year he proved he was also an excellent pitcher, throwing a no-hitter, receiving first-team all-conference and blazing a 93-mph fastball that’s hard to see coming, let alone hit. These accomplishments earned him a scholarship to the University of North Carolina and the attention of several professional baseball scouts, making him a prime candidate for the MLB draft. But right now, his main focus is preparing for his senior year of baseball at Cape, and weight training has been an important part of his plan.

Austin began working with us in August, and since that time he has made a great deal of improvement. We began his training carefully, focusing on developing muscular balance and strengthening stabilizing muscles that will help keep him injury-free and provide muscular endurance so he can be effective for the entire game. This included band work for range of motion and strengthening smaller muscles that are hard to isolate with weights, along with compound movements like squats and presses to help him become faster and more explosive when hitting and running. Soon we will add a phase on speed and agility to keep his feet quick as he gains size and strength.

During this time, Austin has been a hard worker. Despite balancing school and a social life, he is always ready to go and never misses a workout. He brings an energy that can be felt as soon as he walks in the room, and we get the feeling that he’s always having fun despite the intense work and commitment that’s required of him when training with us.

“My body has never felt better. I feel bigger, stronger and faster, and have less soreness and no pains,” said Austin. This was apparent during his last baseball tournament, when a scout approached his father and asked how he was able to add so much muscle in such a short period of time.

Austin has been in contact with about 15 different professional baseball scouts who are interested in seeing him play pro ball, and he will be eligible for the draft in June. Despite all the attention, he still remains level-headed and is focused on the task at hand. This year he will play a combination of center field and pitcher, and he hopes to have an even better season than last year. He will continue to sharpen his skills using weights to become a bigger, stronger player so he will be even more competitive this season at Cape and when he attends the University of North Carolina. Look for him to do great things on and off the field in the near future.