University of North Carolina Athletics
Photo by: UNC Athletic Communications
GoHeels Exclusive: Promises Fulfilled
May 14, 2018 | Baseball, Featured Writers, Academics, Student-Athlete Development
By Pat James, GoHeels.com
Tim Fedroff always knew he'd return, just not exactly when.
Selected by the Cleveland Indians in the seventh round of the 2008 MLB Draft, Fedroff, eligible to be drafted at 21 years old, left Chapel Hill after just two seasons on the North Carolina baseball team. Doing so wasn't easy. But the risk of a poor junior campaign – or even worse, an injury – simplified his decision.
So he placed his academics on hold.
Over the next seven years, Fedroff ascended through the Minor Leagues, climbing as high as Triple-A. He earned MiLB.com Organization All-Star honors twice. Fleeting moments of success were often followed by baseball's inevitable failures. And clubhouse conversations rarely, if ever, revolved around the topic of returning to school and finishing degrees.
But the thought of not graduating never crossed Fedroff's mind. Completing his degree remained a priority.
Finally, when the Miami Marlins released Fedroff on the final day of spring training in 2015, he passed on playing in an independent league and ultimately re-enrolled at UNC.
"That also wasn't an easy decision," said the now-31-year-old Fedroff of retiring from baseball. "But it just felt like it was the right time to get back to school, finish up and move on to new challenges and a new chapter for me."
He's far from the only Mike Fox-coached player to make that choice.
In Fox's 20 seasons coaching the Tar Heels, 58 players have left school early for professional baseball. Thirty-two have completed their degrees or are currently attempting to. Those numbers are even more impressive when you remove the 14 players who left early over the last four years; a majority of them are still playing baseball. Of the 44 players who left as sophomores or juniors between 1999 and 2013, 28 (63.6 percent) already have or will soon have their degrees.
Fox says "the power of UNC" is what has drawn so many players back. That's certainly true. But he deserves much of the credit.
From the moment he starts recruiting a player, Fox emphasizes academics. He has them promise then that they'll earn their degree, if they choose to attend Carolina. And that, perhaps more than anything, speaks to the type of culture he's built.
"I don't want this program to ever be just one year, in and out, help us win games, see ya, go play pro ball," Fox said. "Baseball is going to end for these guys at some point, and most of the time, for the majority of them, sooner rather than later, much sooner than they think it's going to. And then here comes life right at 'em.
"As we all know, life is getting harder and harder. It's harder to make your way now. You better have that degree, you better be prepared. And I think that's a big part of our job as coaches is to prepare them for life after baseball. It's still about education here.
"We're trying to win games. But I want them to do well when they leave here."
For many, that starts by coming back.
The process
One by one the surgeries mounted, his skills deteriorating with each procedure.
At one point, Mike Bynum, a supplemental first-round pick by the San Diego Padres in 1999, was considered one of the top pitching prospects in the Padres' organization. But over eight professional seasons, including three in the Majors, he underwent six surgeries. A seventh, the first on his shoulder, seemed likely. So he opted to retire.
Reaching that decision, Bynum said, might not have been as easy had he not already earned a bachelor's degree in business administration from the UNC Kenan-Flagler Business School.
"I had played with a lot of guys who were in their mid-30s and still struggling in the Minor Leagues, not making any money," said Bynum, who played at UNC from 1997-99. "And that was a determining factor, too.
"It was like, 'I have this degree. I know I can go put it to use. It's not going to take me two years to get a degree and to get back into the workforce; I can do it right away.'"
As a senior in high school, Bynum had been picked by the Boston Red Sox in the 32nd round of the 1996 MLB Draft. But he never entertained the idea of not attending UNC. He knew the importance of getting a degree. And he didn't forget that once he signed with the Padres after his junior season, Fox's first as the Tar Heels' head coach.
Bynum returned to Chapel Hill after his first professional season ended in September 1999. He chipped away at his degree then. Three years later, he received his diploma, becoming Fox's first player at Carolina to complete their degree after leaving school early.
As he finished his degree, Bynum stayed sharp by practicing with the team. He'd occasionally hang out with the players away from the field. Little did he know some would follow his path.
"Hopefully I was a role model to some of them," said Bynum, currently a natural gas optimizer, trader and scheduler at Repsol in Houston.
Russ Adams, who played for the Tar Heels from 2000-02, said he remembers seeing Bynum when he was in school. Like Bynum, Adams always intended to earn his degree. And that remained the case after the Toronto Blue Jays selected Adams, then a junior, with the 14th overall pick in the 2002 MLB Draft.
"I don't have any kids now," Adams said. "But if I do have children in the future, I didn't want them to look at me and say, 'Well, you didn't finish college,' especially when I had the chance to do it at such a great university."
Yet Adams' journey to completing his degree took a bit more time.
Adams rapidly ascended through the Blue Jays' farm system, making his Major League debut on Sept. 3, 2004. He was 24 years old. Over the next five seasons, he played in 285 more games with Toronto. But after three years in the Padres' and New York Mets' organizations, he retired in 2011.
Shortly after, Adams contacted Fox about returning to school. Fox directed him to the academic support staff, and a few weeks later, Adams re-enrolled at UNC.
At the time, Adams was 31. He hadn't taken a college class in about nine years. And because of the technological developments that occurred in that span, he went from printing out homework assignments and papers to doing almost all of his schoolwork on a computer.
"I didn't have Facebook, and it was required for a couple of the classes that I had," he said. "So I had to create a Facebook account. Just little things like that were an adjustment. And I think being a little older than everybody in all the classes was an adjustment, as well."
But Adams successfully re-acclimated himself to college.
Finally, 11 years after he played his final game at Carolina, Adams received his bachelor's degree in communications in May 2013. No Tar Heel has gone longer between signing a professional contract and completing their degree. But others have come close.
It took Andrew Carignan 10 years to finish his degree. Nine years separated Fedroff and Luke Putkonen from their last collegiate seasons and being awarded a diploma.
"For some of them, it takes longer than others because they're working or they don't live close by or whatever the case is," Fox said. "But it's a joint effort to get them all back here. Besides them wanting to do it, it's (academic adviser) Susan Maloy and (Assistant Dean of Academic Advising) Spencer Welborn.
"They guide them through the process of coming back. 'This is where you are, this is what adviser you need to go speak to, this is the class you need to take, this is how you reapply.' I mean, nothing is easy now. It's a process for these guys to get back in here."
But that process has been streamlined in recent years.
'A new appreciation'
Within a week of realizing he'd played his final professional game, Tommy Coyle started making phone calls and sending emails, trying to figure out how to re-enroll at UNC.
Coyle, who played at Carolina from 2010-12, was picked by the Tampa Bays Rays in the 16th round of the 2012 MLB Draft. He played five professional seasons. And in that span, UNC launched Complete Carolina, an enhanced degree-completion program.
Managed by the Department of Athletics, Complete Carolina provides financial support to all returning student-athletes, proportional to a student's athletics aid during their initial enrollment. This covers tuition, fees, room, board and books.
Coyle said he wasn't aware of Complete Carolina until he started the process of re-enrolling at UNC in the fall of 2016.
"That was kind of a surprise," said Coyle, who graduated over the weekend with a bachelor's degree in exercise and sports science and a minor in philosophy. "But it was super helpful. Getting re-enrolled at school was pretty easy."
Since Complete Carolina began with the 2015-16 academic year, slightly more than a dozen Tar Heels have earned their degrees using the program. Many more are currently taking classes to complete their degrees. Of those who have finished the program, almost half played baseball.
Through Complete Carolina, students are also placed in an advising program to provide comprehensive academic advising and career planning before, during and after their return to UNC. Individualized plans for former student-athletes are also developed to maximize each student's success on campus.
Fedroff, an economics major and business administration minor, graduated in May 2017. He said the resources made available to him as a former student-athlete, specifically tutoring, were invaluable.
"I hadn't done any calculus in what seemed like a decade or so," he said. "So I needed to brush up on that. I was able to utilize some of the resources that student-athletes were still able to have access to, which made an incredible difference for me going back as a student."
Trying to balance baseball, academics and some semblance of a life outside both, Fedroff said he went with the flow as a student-athlete at UNC. But his experience was far different in his return.
Although he still attended baseball games and regularly worked out at Boshamer Stadium, he immersed himself in the campus more. Academics were even more of a priority. And along the way, he became more cognizant of how unique UNC is.
"I definitely have a new appreciation for everything that goes on," said Fedroff, currently an associate sales representative at Stryker in New York City. "You see how many moving parts there are and how hard it is to have such a special place built."
'A very special gift'
Visiting his parents' home in Chalfont, Pa., over winter break, Coyle noticed a large package at the front door just a few days before Christmas.
He didn't know what the box contained. But when he opened it, he was surprised to find a framed Carolina jersey that featured the No. 1 he wore during his three seasons in Chapel Hill. Also inside the frame were a placard, a baseball and a photo of himself.
Coyle hadn't completed his degree yet; he needed only 10 more credit hours at the time. But he and 19 former Tar Heels who had left school early and already finished their degrees received a framed jersey as a present from the baseball program.
"It's not like a trophy or a diploma," Coyle said, "but it's like you're graduating from the baseball team."
Most student-athletes go through a similar process on Senior Day. And during his time at UNC, Coyle noticed how special that day was for the seniors he played with.
But after leaving school early, he never experienced a Senior Day of his own.
Fox has always enjoyed honoring his seniors on Senior Day, and in recent years, that's entailed presenting them with a framed jersey similar to the one Coyle received. Former players who left school early for professional baseball had often contacted Fox about acquiring a jersey. So motivated by that and a conversation with Carignan's father, Fox chose to reward those who completed their degree with a jersey.
"With some of them," Fox said, "I kind of apologized and said, 'Sorry it was so late.' I called Mike Bynum and was like, 'Mike, you played on my first team here. I'm sorry you're just now getting your jersey 19 1/2 years later.'"
When Fedroff played at UNC, his parents, Tim and Mary, traveled from Flagtown, N.J., to Chapel Hill for as many games as possible. So when Fedroff received his jersey, he immediately showed it to them. They fell in love.
Currently, Fedroff's framed jersey hangs in his parents' home.
"It's just the perfect way to commemorate my time as a student-athlete at UNC," Fedroff said. "Those were some of the best years of my life. And being able to come back and finish and hang up a diploma from UNC is something that I value very much.
"Now that I have this baseball jersey and a photo of me playing, it's incredibly special, and I'm incredibly grateful that the coaching staff was able to do this for us. It is a very special gift."
And the symbol of a promise fulfilled.
Tim Fedroff always knew he'd return, just not exactly when.
Selected by the Cleveland Indians in the seventh round of the 2008 MLB Draft, Fedroff, eligible to be drafted at 21 years old, left Chapel Hill after just two seasons on the North Carolina baseball team. Doing so wasn't easy. But the risk of a poor junior campaign – or even worse, an injury – simplified his decision.
So he placed his academics on hold.
Over the next seven years, Fedroff ascended through the Minor Leagues, climbing as high as Triple-A. He earned MiLB.com Organization All-Star honors twice. Fleeting moments of success were often followed by baseball's inevitable failures. And clubhouse conversations rarely, if ever, revolved around the topic of returning to school and finishing degrees.
But the thought of not graduating never crossed Fedroff's mind. Completing his degree remained a priority.
Finally, when the Miami Marlins released Fedroff on the final day of spring training in 2015, he passed on playing in an independent league and ultimately re-enrolled at UNC.
"That also wasn't an easy decision," said the now-31-year-old Fedroff of retiring from baseball. "But it just felt like it was the right time to get back to school, finish up and move on to new challenges and a new chapter for me."
He's far from the only Mike Fox-coached player to make that choice.
In Fox's 20 seasons coaching the Tar Heels, 58 players have left school early for professional baseball. Thirty-two have completed their degrees or are currently attempting to. Those numbers are even more impressive when you remove the 14 players who left early over the last four years; a majority of them are still playing baseball. Of the 44 players who left as sophomores or juniors between 1999 and 2013, 28 (63.6 percent) already have or will soon have their degrees.
Fox says "the power of UNC" is what has drawn so many players back. That's certainly true. But he deserves much of the credit.
From the moment he starts recruiting a player, Fox emphasizes academics. He has them promise then that they'll earn their degree, if they choose to attend Carolina. And that, perhaps more than anything, speaks to the type of culture he's built.
"I don't want this program to ever be just one year, in and out, help us win games, see ya, go play pro ball," Fox said. "Baseball is going to end for these guys at some point, and most of the time, for the majority of them, sooner rather than later, much sooner than they think it's going to. And then here comes life right at 'em.
"As we all know, life is getting harder and harder. It's harder to make your way now. You better have that degree, you better be prepared. And I think that's a big part of our job as coaches is to prepare them for life after baseball. It's still about education here.
"We're trying to win games. But I want them to do well when they leave here."
For many, that starts by coming back.
The process
One by one the surgeries mounted, his skills deteriorating with each procedure.
At one point, Mike Bynum, a supplemental first-round pick by the San Diego Padres in 1999, was considered one of the top pitching prospects in the Padres' organization. But over eight professional seasons, including three in the Majors, he underwent six surgeries. A seventh, the first on his shoulder, seemed likely. So he opted to retire.
Reaching that decision, Bynum said, might not have been as easy had he not already earned a bachelor's degree in business administration from the UNC Kenan-Flagler Business School.
"I had played with a lot of guys who were in their mid-30s and still struggling in the Minor Leagues, not making any money," said Bynum, who played at UNC from 1997-99. "And that was a determining factor, too.
"It was like, 'I have this degree. I know I can go put it to use. It's not going to take me two years to get a degree and to get back into the workforce; I can do it right away.'"
As a senior in high school, Bynum had been picked by the Boston Red Sox in the 32nd round of the 1996 MLB Draft. But he never entertained the idea of not attending UNC. He knew the importance of getting a degree. And he didn't forget that once he signed with the Padres after his junior season, Fox's first as the Tar Heels' head coach.
Bynum returned to Chapel Hill after his first professional season ended in September 1999. He chipped away at his degree then. Three years later, he received his diploma, becoming Fox's first player at Carolina to complete their degree after leaving school early.
As he finished his degree, Bynum stayed sharp by practicing with the team. He'd occasionally hang out with the players away from the field. Little did he know some would follow his path.
"Hopefully I was a role model to some of them," said Bynum, currently a natural gas optimizer, trader and scheduler at Repsol in Houston.
Russ Adams, who played for the Tar Heels from 2000-02, said he remembers seeing Bynum when he was in school. Like Bynum, Adams always intended to earn his degree. And that remained the case after the Toronto Blue Jays selected Adams, then a junior, with the 14th overall pick in the 2002 MLB Draft.
"I don't have any kids now," Adams said. "But if I do have children in the future, I didn't want them to look at me and say, 'Well, you didn't finish college,' especially when I had the chance to do it at such a great university."
Yet Adams' journey to completing his degree took a bit more time.
Adams rapidly ascended through the Blue Jays' farm system, making his Major League debut on Sept. 3, 2004. He was 24 years old. Over the next five seasons, he played in 285 more games with Toronto. But after three years in the Padres' and New York Mets' organizations, he retired in 2011.
Shortly after, Adams contacted Fox about returning to school. Fox directed him to the academic support staff, and a few weeks later, Adams re-enrolled at UNC.
At the time, Adams was 31. He hadn't taken a college class in about nine years. And because of the technological developments that occurred in that span, he went from printing out homework assignments and papers to doing almost all of his schoolwork on a computer.
"I didn't have Facebook, and it was required for a couple of the classes that I had," he said. "So I had to create a Facebook account. Just little things like that were an adjustment. And I think being a little older than everybody in all the classes was an adjustment, as well."
But Adams successfully re-acclimated himself to college.
Finally, 11 years after he played his final game at Carolina, Adams received his bachelor's degree in communications in May 2013. No Tar Heel has gone longer between signing a professional contract and completing their degree. But others have come close.
It took Andrew Carignan 10 years to finish his degree. Nine years separated Fedroff and Luke Putkonen from their last collegiate seasons and being awarded a diploma.
"For some of them, it takes longer than others because they're working or they don't live close by or whatever the case is," Fox said. "But it's a joint effort to get them all back here. Besides them wanting to do it, it's (academic adviser) Susan Maloy and (Assistant Dean of Academic Advising) Spencer Welborn.
"They guide them through the process of coming back. 'This is where you are, this is what adviser you need to go speak to, this is the class you need to take, this is how you reapply.' I mean, nothing is easy now. It's a process for these guys to get back in here."
But that process has been streamlined in recent years.
'A new appreciation'
Within a week of realizing he'd played his final professional game, Tommy Coyle started making phone calls and sending emails, trying to figure out how to re-enroll at UNC.
Coyle, who played at Carolina from 2010-12, was picked by the Tampa Bays Rays in the 16th round of the 2012 MLB Draft. He played five professional seasons. And in that span, UNC launched Complete Carolina, an enhanced degree-completion program.
Managed by the Department of Athletics, Complete Carolina provides financial support to all returning student-athletes, proportional to a student's athletics aid during their initial enrollment. This covers tuition, fees, room, board and books.
Coyle said he wasn't aware of Complete Carolina until he started the process of re-enrolling at UNC in the fall of 2016.
"That was kind of a surprise," said Coyle, who graduated over the weekend with a bachelor's degree in exercise and sports science and a minor in philosophy. "But it was super helpful. Getting re-enrolled at school was pretty easy."
Since Complete Carolina began with the 2015-16 academic year, slightly more than a dozen Tar Heels have earned their degrees using the program. Many more are currently taking classes to complete their degrees. Of those who have finished the program, almost half played baseball.
Through Complete Carolina, students are also placed in an advising program to provide comprehensive academic advising and career planning before, during and after their return to UNC. Individualized plans for former student-athletes are also developed to maximize each student's success on campus.
Fedroff, an economics major and business administration minor, graduated in May 2017. He said the resources made available to him as a former student-athlete, specifically tutoring, were invaluable.
"I hadn't done any calculus in what seemed like a decade or so," he said. "So I needed to brush up on that. I was able to utilize some of the resources that student-athletes were still able to have access to, which made an incredible difference for me going back as a student."
Trying to balance baseball, academics and some semblance of a life outside both, Fedroff said he went with the flow as a student-athlete at UNC. But his experience was far different in his return.
Although he still attended baseball games and regularly worked out at Boshamer Stadium, he immersed himself in the campus more. Academics were even more of a priority. And along the way, he became more cognizant of how unique UNC is.
"I definitely have a new appreciation for everything that goes on," said Fedroff, currently an associate sales representative at Stryker in New York City. "You see how many moving parts there are and how hard it is to have such a special place built."
'A very special gift'
Visiting his parents' home in Chalfont, Pa., over winter break, Coyle noticed a large package at the front door just a few days before Christmas.
He didn't know what the box contained. But when he opened it, he was surprised to find a framed Carolina jersey that featured the No. 1 he wore during his three seasons in Chapel Hill. Also inside the frame were a placard, a baseball and a photo of himself.
Coyle hadn't completed his degree yet; he needed only 10 more credit hours at the time. But he and 19 former Tar Heels who had left school early and already finished their degrees received a framed jersey as a present from the baseball program.
"It's not like a trophy or a diploma," Coyle said, "but it's like you're graduating from the baseball team."
Most student-athletes go through a similar process on Senior Day. And during his time at UNC, Coyle noticed how special that day was for the seniors he played with.
But after leaving school early, he never experienced a Senior Day of his own.
Fox has always enjoyed honoring his seniors on Senior Day, and in recent years, that's entailed presenting them with a framed jersey similar to the one Coyle received. Former players who left school early for professional baseball had often contacted Fox about acquiring a jersey. So motivated by that and a conversation with Carignan's father, Fox chose to reward those who completed their degree with a jersey.
"With some of them," Fox said, "I kind of apologized and said, 'Sorry it was so late.' I called Mike Bynum and was like, 'Mike, you played on my first team here. I'm sorry you're just now getting your jersey 19 1/2 years later.'"
When Fedroff played at UNC, his parents, Tim and Mary, traveled from Flagtown, N.J., to Chapel Hill for as many games as possible. So when Fedroff received his jersey, he immediately showed it to them. They fell in love.
Currently, Fedroff's framed jersey hangs in his parents' home.
"It's just the perfect way to commemorate my time as a student-athlete at UNC," Fedroff said. "Those were some of the best years of my life. And being able to come back and finish and hang up a diploma from UNC is something that I value very much.
"Now that I have this baseball jersey and a photo of me playing, it's incredibly special, and I'm incredibly grateful that the coaching staff was able to do this for us. It is a very special gift."
And the symbol of a promise fulfilled.
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