FALL RIVER, MA (WPRI) – They were set to defend the Division One baseball crown. Bishop Hendricken’s young guns, led by Brandyn Durand, were prepared to carry on the winning ways, but it was cancelled because of the coronavirus.

“It would have been a really good year to show what we got,” Durand said. “But unfortunately we couldn’t.”

A recent commit to the University of Kentucky, Duran’s early days of playing baseball weren’t a good indicator of his future success.

“Believe it or not when I was in t-ball I hated baseball,” the rising junior said. “I was the kid picking daisies in the outfield. Then when I was in Little League, my dad was the coach of the all stars and my cousin, one of my best buds, made the All Star team, and I didn’t so that lit a fire under me and that’s when I started to love baseball and figure out it’s what I wanted to do.”

In addition to baseball, Brandyn did get to play for the Hawks state championship football team. He earned first team all-state honors. Balancing both sports in high school has him considering doing the same in college, a choice that only applies to a select few athletes at the D-I level.

“It really depends on the school and that’s the advice I gave him,” Hendricken head football coach Keith Croft said. “I think certain schools would probably allow it. I know over the years Notre Dame has allowed student-athletes to play football and baseball.”

“He’s a really high profile baseball recruit so you’d probably look baseball first, but if he put his mind to it and really wanted to, he could find a program where he could do both.”

“It’s definitely something I would have to think about, but I definitely think it’s something that if I put my mind to it, and tried as hard as I could, I could definitely accomplish it.”