The world of college recruiting has changed drastically in recent years, and Trevor Gottsegen of Highlands Ranch high school is a part of one of the last classes under the old rules. Rules that weren’t suited for young athletes as it allowed them to commit early, often too early leading to players and/or teams from changing their minds and either revoking an offer, or decommitting. When he first got an offer to play baseball at a power conference school, naturally, he jumped on it. But it wasn’t the right staff. It wasn’t the right school. It wasn’t the right fit. In the summer between his Junior and Senior years, he decommitted and re-opened his recruiting. Over the summer he got the invite to the Perfect Game National Showcase in Arizona where he would get the chance to play on a Major League Baseball diamond for the first time, Chase Field, home of the Diamondbacks. 

The PG National opens with on field workouts, with the first workout being the 60 yard dash, set to measure the explosiveness and speed of players. Gottsegen was in the first grouping of players to run, and he set the bar. With a quick first step and feet driving into the pristine outfield grass of Chase Field, he covered 60 yards in just 6.31 seconds, an average of just under 20 MPH. It was the best time he had ever put up in the 60 yard dash, and he said “that was probably the coolest part of my year this year. Being able to do that was really cool, kinda showed that all the work paid off because my goal was to run a 6.4.” One by one players lined up at that same marking in the outfield and ran their best. After all 300+ players ran, not one of them managed to better his time. 

While at the event, Gottsegen stated it was the best collective of pitchers he had ever faced. He started off against one of the top left handed pitchers in the country, Cameron Appenzeller. He had a good showing at the plate, looked the part – made plenty of contact, and certainly made a quality impression on those watching – especially the pro scouts and college coaches. Decommitting the week before made him one of the prime targets for many college coaches at the PG National event, and it paid off. One coach he made an impression on was Mike Brown, Assistant Coach and Recruiting Coordinator at the University of Utah. Utah had long been Gottsegen’s dream school and receiving the offer to play baseball there was the right fit, and he committed to the Utes soon after. 

In February, he will head to the Prep Baseball Report’s Super 60, another of the top annual showcase events every year. When asked what his goal is to come from that, he stated, “same thing with PG National, I just wanna show I am the most athletic kid in the country. I have never been a kid who hit the ball harder than everyone; or further than everyone; thrown the ball harder than everyone by any means; but I wanna show I am a gritty player, hit a lot of line drives, have accurate throws, and run faster than everybody!”

Now Gottsegen will go into the Spring as one, if not the top prospects in the state of Colorado, knowing he will have the opportunity to play baseball in the Big 12 for the University of Utah next year, although it is not a guarantee he will end up there. He is one of the better outfield prospects in the country, so MLB scouts will be making plenty of visits to Colorado to get eyes on Gottsegen with the possibility of selecting him in the draft come July. That isn’t Trevor’s primary focus though, instead he has his eyes set on one goal – win a state title for Highlands Ranch High School.

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