SCHOLAR ATHLETE

De Anza College student and U.S. Marine Corps veteran Sgt. Cory Kingston was recently awared the title of Scholar Athlete.

De Anza College student  and U.S. Marine Corps Veteran Sgt. Cory Kingston has played baseball for 20 years.

“My grandfather put a bat in my hand when I was about four years old,” Kingston said.

“My grandfather took me and my brother to the park when we were kids and taught us to play baseball.”

Kingston continued the tradition of playing baseball as center fielder for the De Anza Dons baseball team for the past two years.

He said his grandfather played right field for the Chicago Cubs and is also a veteran of the Korean War.

Before Kingston made the Dons baseball team, he played with Willow Glen High School baseball team.

Kingston practices baseball about 20 hours a week during baseball season and about 10 hours a week in the off-season.

He said he finds time to practice baseball around everything, including his Environmental Science studies.

Kingston returned to baseball after serving four years in the United States Marine Corps with active duty in an Afghanistan combat zone for more than seven months in 2009.

Master Sgt. Ron Temple a 20-year veteran of the Marine Corps, said Kingston’s willingness to strive for the best moved him up in the ranks.

“He is a team player who stays motivated in the roughest of times,” Temple said.

Kingston said he experienced the loss of a few friends in the Afghanistan deployment and it was tough returning to his studies and  sports after serving.

“Many people don’t understand the realities of what veterans live with every day,” Kingston said.

Serving in the Marine Corps as an urban combat leader, a training noncommissioned officer and martial arts instructor among his other duties, Kingston said he picked up most of his ranks meritoriously and was honorably discharged as an E-5 Sergeant in August 2011.

Kingston said he had hoped to play for the Marines’ baseball team but was unable to play seriously during his time in active duty.

“Cory is a really great representative of our college and our athletics program,” said Scott Hertler, head coach of the De Anza Dons baseball team.

“He’s a great guy. He consistently shows effort, plays hard, and he’s an outstanding baseball player.”

A recipient of De Anza’s Scholar Athlete of the Year of 2013,  and a partial baseball scholarship to the University of New York at Albany, where he will be transferring this Fall, Kingston’s effort with his studies and baseball show.

He was chosen as an All Coast Conference baseball player by coaches and voted Most Valuable Player this year by his teammates.

“As a team we put up one of the best baseball records De Anza has had in recent years,” Kingston said.

For the future, Kingston hopes to work more with mentoring in baseball, including kids, he said.

He would also like to coach someday too.

“Cory’s leadership skills make him the kind of baseball player any program would be proud to have,” Hertler said.