“Dion is the guy that it took me more than anybody in the history of my coaching career to sign,” Ramos said. “I wanted to sign him as soon as he got out of high school, but things didn’t work out. I always keep checking on him and seeing where he was. He always kept in touch, he has come to the field the last few years and practiced during the summer. This is great. This is the guy as a coach you always find this guy and say I wish I could coach this guy. This is a guy that his attitude is excellent, family is excellent, baseball talent is above. I think he is a guy that is going to help and most important this is a guy that I want to coach. That is the reason he is here.”
Last season, Duncan put up pretty solid fielding percentages from centerfield at Wallace State in Selma. The 6-foot-3, sophomore recorded 108 total outs, three assists with a fielding average of 0.954.
“I am expecting a lot things out of him,” Ramos said. “He is going to play centerfield. We are going to try a little bit to see how good he is on the pitching mound. We are going to see if he can equal or improve what he did in high school on the mound. As an outfielder he has the tools to be anybody’s outfielder in the country. We are glad that we have him. He will improve the baseball team tremendously. We need some improvement in the outfielders; with him we are getting it. We need some improvement with speed and with him we are going to get it. I am very excited.”
As a senior, Duncan earned All State honors in three sports. He said he likes the opportunity to play baseball in Talladega again.
“It feels good to be back home and playing with familiar players that I played with in high school and Little League,” Duncan said.
Last season, Duncan led Wallace State Selma with hits with 35.
He had a batting average of .299 and drove in 12 RBI’s. Duncan feels like playing for Coach Ramos will help him improve as a player.
“To be honest I think I was just playing,” Duncan said.
“I pretty much had to help myself up there, because it was only one coach and he was trying to coach 30 something players. He didn’t have time to focus on just one player and tell us what we need to do, so I think it was just a downgrade. I am hoping coming to this team I can be helped out a little bit better as far as my fundamentals.”
The familiarity that Duncan has with TC’s baseball field is a positive for him. He also believes playing there will make him feel like he is in high school again.
“I think it will be because I will be a little bit more comfortable,” Duncan said. “Some of the people I know will be at the games and I feel like I am in high school again I guess.”
TC Central head baseball coach and Dion’s father Robert Duncan believes coming to TC is a good decision.
“Its got its advantages and I think it is going to be a good experience,” he said. “He’s had a good ride and a few years of good experience. It started out slow this past year in JUCO and he really picked it up. He ended up leading the team in hitting. That shows you that the cream will always rise to the top, just keep working hard. He is an experienced college football, college basketball and he is just back to where he started with baseball. He went full circle back to Talladega and we look forward to the journey.”
