Niceville High School senior Kyle Ely, was presented with the 2007 JD Fleet/Traveling Eagles Scholarship during the Organization’s annual banquet on August 4^th. The scholarship is named in the memory of JD Fleet, a player who played with the Traveling Eagles in 1999 as a 10-year old and was killed in an accident in December of that year. Ely received a $1,000 scholarship to go towards his tuition, books, fees or living expenses as he begins his college career. Kyle was among seven graduating Niceville High School Baseball players who were honored with a “Once an Eagle Always an Eagle Award”. Each of the honorees had previously played with the Traveling Eagles up to the 14U division.

 

The Senior’s who were honored include Jimmy Boswell, Kyle Ely, Tyler Hastings, Patrick Horrell, Jimmy Nelson, Chris Russano and Jeremy Thedford. All of the graduating Senior’s have received scholarship offers to play College Baseball. The event also had three former major league baseball players in attendance. Greg Litton, who was the guest speaker and played in the majors for six years, Rick Wilkins who played pro ball for ten years and Dennis Rasmussen who had a fifteen-year career.

 

The Traveling Eagles were founded in December 1998 with the goal of developing and preparing baseball players in the Niceville area to compete at the middle school and high school level. Starting with one team in 1998 the organization has grown to teams in six age groups (9U to 14U) in the spring season and the addition of an 18U team in the summer and fall. This past year the Niceville High School Baseball Program was ranked number one in the State of Florida at various times and was also ranked as high as eighteen in the country.