The father of Barbara Goleman High recent graduate, Michael Avendano, told his son that playing baseball would land him a college scholarship someday.
After heeding his father’s advice, Avendano is headed to Barry University to resume his career in the college ranks and conceivably play Major League Baseball.
Avendano is the latest Roland Gomez Scholarship award winner from the Miami Lakes Optimist Club who’s going off to college in the fall.
He won the award as an 8th-grade student at Miami Lakes K-8 Center, but the winners don’t receive their $1,000 check until they enroll into a college or university.
The former Gator infielder played baseball for Goleman and the Optimist Club’s recreation and travel teams.
As a junior at Goleman, Avendano hit .426 with 21 RBI, 29 hits and five doubles, earning him a spot on The Miami Herald’s All-Dade Team. The Gators won the district championship and beat Colorado’s Fairview and Broward’s Douglas, the top two teams in the country, to win the Spring Break tournament.
As a senior, Avendano batted .394 with 27 RBI, 28 hits, six doubles and one home run, helping the Gators win their third consecutive district championship.
He said his dad was his biggest inspiration and taught him everything he knew about the game of baseball.
“He showed me the game and I enjoyed playing it with my teammates,” Avendano said. “I like the competition and playing with a team because it’s a team sport. He said baseball would get me a scholarship.”
Avendano was recruited by several colleges including Division 1A Mississippi’s Jackson State University and 2015 NAIA College World Series runner-up St. Thomas University, but he chose to stay home and accepted the offer by Barry University.
“The school is great academically and athletically, the baseball program is great,” he said. “The school showed great interest in me and I can achieve my goals academically and athletically. Barry University is a distinguished university.”
Avendano, who graduated high school with a 4.4 GPA, said he plans to study nursing in college.
He said his dad and coaches, Luis Arrogas at the Optimist Club and Jose Lopez and Dario Martinez at Goleman, helped mold him into the player he is today.
“They really helped me a lot,” he said.