Daniel Wilkerson has traveled a long way since his days of playing baseball for his father, Todd Wilkerson, at Kerr-Vance Academy. His baseball journey has taken him to Randolph Macon College and then to East Carolina University and now to the Cotuit Kettleers in the Cape Cod League.
“I’m following in my father’s footsteps,” Wilkerson said on Thursday’s SportsTalk with George Hoyle. Wilkerson’s father spent many years coaching at KVA and the younger Wilkerson is doing much the same but at a different level and a different place. After two years at East Carolina, Wilkerson has found himself an assistant coaching position with the Kettleers. He coaches 1st base during games and does much of the team’s field work keeping the playing surface in game day shape. In the evenings Wilkerson will scout teams to help prepare the Kettleers for the next game.
The Cape Cod League has 10 teams in two divisions and features some of college baseball’s top players, many of whom are on the verge of being drafted. That means players turn over frequently. Despite the geographical distance between Cape Cod in Massachusetts and Henderson, Wilkerson does see similarites in how all of the programs he has been involved in operate. He also sees differences as well. “The game speeds up,” Wilkerson said. He says there was a difference in the speed of play from KVA to Randolph Macon and again from there to ECU and even more in the Cape Cod league.
His work for the Cotuit Kettleers must be paying off as the team leads there division in the league with a 14-4 record.