Loveland Magazine

LOVELAND MAGAZINE

News and Events from the Loveland, Ohio Area

Without fear or favor

Since 2004

Tag: Georgia Tech Yellowjackets

  • Jeff Williams and Luke Waddell will be inducted into Class of 2022 Loveland High School Athletic Hall of Fame

    Jeff Williams and Luke Waddell will be inducted into Class of 2022 Loveland High School Athletic Hall of Fame

    Loveland, Ohio – The induction into the Class 0f 2022 Loveland High School Athletic Hall of Fame will be on Friday, February 3 at Loveland High School. The time will be approximately at 7:30 PM between the JV and Varsity Men’s baseball games.

    Loveland Athletic Achievement Award

    Jeff Williams (right) escorts Tony Ricci and the game ball during 2019 Homecoming activities. (Loveland Magazine file photo)

    Jeff Williams served as Loveland Athletic Booster President from 2005 to 2020.

    There were three Loveland High School State Championships during his tenure for which he organized Tony’s dinners, championship rings, and state travel gear.

    Jeff raised $500,000 for the first turf field and $750,000 for a weight room that is used by all athletes in grades 7 thru 12.

    Jeff was responsible for the “Building Tradition” branding, creating the Friday Night football experience, revamping locker rooms, and the purchase of the “Bleacher Jersey” and two Tiger tunnels.

    During his tenure, he established a long-term relationship with a spirit wear vendor. He challenged City Hall when they tried to ban candy from being thrown during the Homecoming Parade. Jeff started the tradition of ECC Champs and Senior dinners for all athletes at Tony’s Steakhouse. He revamped the Hall of Fame dinner and gifts.

    Loveland Freshman, Like Waddell had 175 ground yards on 19 carries, and 194 total yards when Loveland High School won the state Division II championship in 2013.

    High School Accomplishments

    Graduated from Loveland High School in 2017.

    Football

    • 4 Year LHS Letterman 2013 through 2016.

    • 2013 (13 wins – 0 loses) Division ll State Championship Team.

    All ECC 2nd Team Freshman year.

    All ECC 1st Team, Sophomore, Junior, and Senior year.

    ECC Offensive Player of the Year, Senior year.

    All-City 1st Team Freshman, Sophomore, and Junior year.

    All-City Honorable Mention Senior year.

    Max Prep 1, 2nd Team All-American.

    Skyline Chili Crosstown Showdown MVP Junior and Senior year.

    Edward Jones Student of the Month 3 times.

    All-State Special Mention Junior year.

    All-State Offensive Skill Player of the Year Junior and Senior year.

    All-State Offensive MVP 3.

    Archie Griffin Sportsmanship Award Senior year.

    Tri-State Offensive Player of the Year Finalist Junior year.

    LHS School Football Records

    Career Rushing Yards 5600.

    Career Points 500.

    Career Touchdowns 83.

    Career Receiving Yards 1699.

    Single Game Rushing Yards 383 set on September 11, 2015.

    Shattering nearly a half-century-old LHS record, Luke Waddell ran 19 times for 383 yards and scored 5 touchdowns at Oak Hills on September 11, 2015. (Read story…)

    Single Season Rushing Yards 1784 (2013).

    Single Season Points Scored 192 (2015).  

    Basketball

    Varsity Letter Junior year.

    All-ECC 2nd Team Junior year.  

    All-Conference Academic Junior year.

    Charlie Harker Assists Award Junior year.                                                          

    Baseball

    Varsity Letterman Freshman, Sophomore, Junior, and Senior year.

    Most Valuable Offensive Player Freshman and Junior year.

    Tiger Man Award Sophomore, Junior, and Senior year.

    All-ECC 1st Team Freshman, Sophomore, Junior, and Senior year.

    Athlete of the Year Senior year.

    1st Team All-Ohio Junior, and Senior year.

    All-City Honorable Mention Freshman year.

    All-City 1st Team Sophomore, Junior, and Senior year.

    All-City 2016 

    All-USA Today Ohio 1st Team Senior year

    East-West All-Star Senior year.

    Cincinnati Sports Award Senior year

    Cincinnati Athlete of the Year Finalist Senior year

    Cincinnati Baseball Player of the Year Senior year

    2016-2017 LaRosa’s Male MVP Finalist.

    LHS School Baseball Records

    Career Doubles 39.

    Career Hit Leader 145.

    Games Played 105. 

    30 Hit Club Freshman and Sophomore.

    40 Hit Club Junior year.

    100 Hit Club (105) Career.

    College

    Georgia Tech Yellowjackets Baseball. Three year starter.

    Professional Baseball

    Currently with Atlanta Braves’ minor league Mississippi Braves.

  • Luke Waddell Selected as Pre-season 2nd-Team All-American!

    Luke Waddell Selected as Pre-season 2nd-Team All-American!

    by Cassie Mattia

    Loveland, Ohio – Former Loveland High School Baseball and Football stand-out, Luke Waddell has again been awarded quite the preseason honor!

    On Monday afternoon D1Baseball announced Waddell, Georgia Tech Baseball’s shortstop, and captain would be apart of their Pre-season All-American Second-Team. Last season Waddell earned the Academic All-American honor and was a semifinalist for Shortstop of the Year in 2019.

    During the 2020 Georgia Tech Baseball season Waddell had a .300 batting average over the course of 16 games and in 2019 averaged a .419 on-base percentage. For both seasons Waddell averaged a .432 on-base percentage, a 10:1 at-bat to strikeout ratio, and the highest on-base streak on the team (39 games).

    Waddell is clearly a highly decorated collegiate student-athlete but just how does one get selected to D1Baseball’s All-American Pre-season Team?

    According to D1Baseball’s website, “D1Baseball’s editors and national writers select the preseason All-America teams with one guiding principle in mind: to identify the best and most valuable college baseball players for the 2021 season. Past performance and future potential factor into the deliberations, but the goal is neither to identify the best future major leaguers nor to reward the players who have put up the gaudiest numbers in past seasons (particularly since the level of competition varies significantly from one conference to another). The objective is to select the players who would provide the most value for a team that wanted to win the College World Series in 2021 — the players who are best equipped to perform against elite college competition this spring.”

    To see D1Baseball’s entire All-American Pre-season Second-team click the following link: https://d1baseball.com/season-preview/2021-d1baseball-second-team-preseason-all-americans/.

    After Georgia Tech Baseball’s 2020 season being shortened because of COVID-19, the Yellowjackets are more than ready to grab another Coastal Division Championship! The Yellowjackets have several 2020 Freshman All-Americans returning as well as several top-performing upperclassmen. The expectations for GT is high as they’re currently on 4 National Pre-Season Top-25 lists. D1Baseball ranked the Yellowjackets 15th, College Baseball Nation also ranked the team 15th, Perfect Game ranked them 19th, and Baseball America ranked GT 22nd.

    Congratulations Luke Waddell on all your outstanding collegiate accomplishments! We can’t wait to see you and the Yellowjackets succeed this year!

    Looking for more local sports news and updates? Stay tuned to the Sports 411 With Me, Cassie Mattia!

  • Former Loveland Baseball Stand-Out Luke Waddell Drafted by the Diamondbacks

    Former Loveland Baseball Stand-Out Luke Waddell Drafted by the Diamondbacks

    Loveland Magazine file photo of Luke Waddell playing for the Loveland Tigers – ©2017 by David Miller

    by Cassie Mattia

    Loveland, Ohio – It’s no secret that here in Loveland there is no shortage of phenomenal athletes. A 2017 Loveland High School grad and nationally recognized baseball player, Luke Waddell, received the news on June 5th that he was drafted in the 32nd round of the MLB Draft to the Arizona Diamondbacks. Many celebrated the news voicing how excited they were for Waddell on twitter and facebook, but no one celebrated more than the Loveland Tiger supporters! Below were some of the tweets posted after the 32nd round draft results were released.

    The Assistant Principal at Loveland High School said…

    Matthew Buis

    @LHS_MrBuis

    Congrats Luke! @lucas_wadd07

    The Georgia Tech Baseball Team said…

    Georgia Tech Baseball

    @GTBaseball

    DRAFTED! Congratulations on Luke Waddell hearing his name in the 32nd round of the @MLBDraft by the @Dbacks

    The Loveland High School Tigers Baseball Team said…

    LHSTigersBaseball

    @LHSTigersBase

    Always knew this day was coming since he was 8, but bigger and better things always on Luke’s horizon.

    Luke Waddell as a Loveland Tiger in 2017. Loveland Magazine © File Photo by David Miller

    Waddell, who was born and raised in Loveland, excelled in baseball, football, and basketball at Loveland High School. Waddell racked up a number of accolades with the Tigers some of the most prominent being baseball honors. In 2017, Perfect Game rated Waddell as the number 3 shortstop and the number 11 overall prospect in Ohio. Waddell also received an All-American Honorable Mention nod in 2017 in addition to becoming the ECC Baseball Athlete of the Year. Waddell, a 4 time ECC first team all-conference selection and 2-time all-state selection, still holds the Loveland High School Baseball record for career games played, hits and doubles.

    Waddell did not shy away from other sports in high school just because he was so gifted in one sport, which in his case was baseball. He also lettered in football and basketball at Loveland. In 2013 when the Loveland Tigers Football team grabbed the state championship title, district title, and the ECC conference title, Waddell aided in the Tiger’s success tremendously setting records in career rushing yards, receiving yards, touchdowns, points scored, and the most rushing yards and touchdowns in a single season. In fact the day Waddell broke Loveland High School’s 49-year-old, single-game rushing record he didn’t even realize he did it until record keeper and facilities manager, Kevin Taylor told him after the game. He told Loveland Magazine at the time, “I was honestly shocked. I knew I had a good game, but didn’t know I broke any records. So, it was pretty exciting.” 

    Luke Waddell as a Loveland Football Tiger. Photo by David Burig © 2015

    Waddell was also named by MaxPreps, second-team freshman All-American in 2013 and first team all-conference by the ECC for all for 4 years of his high school football career. 

    The Midland Redskins summer baseball team got the pleasure of having Waddell for 3 seasons before he took off to play collegiate baseball at Georiga Tech. In Waddell’s freshman season with GT in 2018 he played in 42 games starting in 31 of those games. Waddell had quite the impressive stat sheet as a freshman hitting a .283 batting average and posting an on-base percentage of .348. In 2019 Waddell had an even more successful year playing in 57 games hitting a .328 batting average. Waddell’s on-base percentage also improved to a .442. The 2019 results Waddell brought in for the Yellow Jackets earned him 20th best batting average in the entire ACC. 

    After years of hard work and dedication to improving his craft, Luke Waddell was selected last Wednesday in the 32nd round of the MLB draft to join the Arizona Diamondbacks.

    Although Waddell is thrilled with being drafted he has made the decision to return to Georgia Tech for his junior year season. Waddell’s former coaches, teammates, and classmates are still very excited to hear about Waddell being drafted. Included below are thoughts from Brian Conaster, Loveland High School Athletic Director, and Ken Reed, Waddell’s former high school baseball coach, about Luke Waddell.

    “Luke is an incredibly talented player who was a pleasure to coach at LHS. Not only was he one of the most productive players in the state of Ohio, but he was also a great teammate. The Loveland community should be very proud of how well Luke has represented the town,” Ken Reed said.

    “Luke Waddell was not only a record-breaking high school stand out multiple sport athlete, but a person of high character in and out of the classroom. Luke always embodies the Loveland core values of respect, responsibility, integrity,  and pride,” Brian Conaster said.

    If you would like to follow Luke Waddell’s journey with the Georgia Tech Yellowjackets you can go to the Georgia Tech’s baseball twitter page at https://twitter.com/GTBaseball, their website at https://ramblinwreck.com/sports/m-basebl/, their FB page or Loveland Athletic’s twitter page at https://twitter.com/LovTigers_AD. The Loveland Magazine team will also be following Waddell’s progress if you would like to check out our Facebook page or Twitter page at https://twitter.com/lovelandmagazin.