By Ken Lay
Knoxville Catholic High School baseball player Emery Wright will continue his academic pursuits and baseball career at Tennessee Tech University.
He made it official Wednesday afternoon when he signed his National Letter of Intent to play for the Golden Eagles at a ceremony at Catholic.
Wright was joined at the signing ceremony by friends, family and teammates as he finalized his plans to head to Cookeville.
Wright, a catcher for the Irish, said that Tennessee Tech was a perfect for him but noted that his baseball career there will get a late start as he suffered an arm joint injury late in the season while playing in the outfield for the Irish.
“I usually catch, but I was playing in the outfield and injured my U-joint,” said Wright, who will enter Tennessee Tech as a health science major in the school’s pre-med program. They have a (health science) program and they told me that I would be able to play early, until the injury.
“It’s close enough to home so my friends and family can come and watch me play and I liked the student-to-faculty ratio, especially since I’m going to have a tough major, especially when it’s combined with baseball.”
Since he sustained the injury, Wright said that he is facing six months of recovery and plans on redshirting during his freshman season.
Like many athletes going through the recruiting process during the 2020-21 academic year, Wright faced the complications of making college visits during the era of the COVID-19 pandemic.
“I didn’t get to go down there and make a visit until early March and it was snowing, and they didn’t have school that day because it was snowing,” he said.
But the visit was enough to sell Wright on Tennessee Tech.
“I liked the campus there, and regardless of whether or not I suffered a career-ending injury, I knew that I’d be happy at Tennessee Tech,” he said.
Catholic coach Caleb Moore said that Wright has been a leader in his program.
“When I think of Catholic baseball, I think of Emery Wright because he’s successful both on the field and in the classroom,” Moore said. “I started working with him when he was in the seventh grade.”
