Sickles’ humble Hit King Yost looks to lead one last hurrah
By Jarrett Guthrie, Editor
CITRUS PARK – It was like coming across bigfoot, or finding buried treasure, or having a UFO land in your backyard.
“It was kind of like they saw a ghost,” Sickles head coach Eric Luksis said.
The Gryphons bench was momentarily stunned silent as senior captain Jordan Yost returned to the dugout in the first inning against Wharton on February 13th – having just swung over strike three in a seven-pitch at-bat to Wildcats junior Daniel Duno.
The senior shortstop has a .974 fielding percentage this season.
It was Yost’s fourth strikeout in February … of his four-year varsity career – the first since two in February of 2023 and just his 10th high school strikeout ever – and the last one he has had, now 22 games ago, as the senior has lit the county on fire with a .455 batting average and a .584 on-base percentage.
“He just swung and missed and it was a strike, then he kind of went back to the dugout and the dugout got silent for a second,” Luksis said. “To have one in over a year is just incredible.”
Yost has 93 hits and counting and has the all-time mark for Sickles High School.
His 34 runs scored lead Hillsborough County, and his steady, dynamic defense pace an 18-7 Sickles squad set to begin the Class 6A-District 11 tournament when the Gryphons host Largo tonight at 7 pm.
This year Yost has walked 12 times and been hit by 10 pitches, he has four homers and 22 RBI, and last week was named the Most Valuable Player by the Florida Athletic Coaches Association for District 15.
When asked about the training and focus he’s put into not striking out, rather than some detailed routine or sage coaching wisdom he’s been taught, he modestly shuffles it off, talking about two-strike approaches and making opposing defenses work.
“I’ve always taken pride in fighting with two strikes,” Yost said. “I never thought I’d strikeout this little in my high school career, but contact has always been a big thing for me, even when I was young.
“It was never really one specific thing (I focused on), I just choke up, get wide, and see the baseball as long as I can to put it in play – but I don’t really think about it too much – it’s just kind of happened. I guess it’s paying off a little bit.”
One of two remaining significant cogs from the Gryphons 2023 state title team (along with fellow senior Brandon Gonzales), Yost has steadily produced for four years (a .363 career average, 88 runs, 66 RBI, 53 stolen bases), helping solidify a family legacy started by older brother Hayden, who was also a four-year varsity player and a senior on the state title team – now at the University of Florida.
Sickles head coach Eric Luksis celebrating the Gryphons 2023 State Championship with brothers Hayden (#16) and Jordan Yost (#10).
Poised, talented, and humble – Jordan Yost is signed to join his older brother at UF next fall – a lifelong dream – but his skills have also drawn steady attention from professional scouts this spring, and those college plans may have some competition come the MLB draft.
“Obviously, before this year there wasn’t really much of that going on, so this has been kind of a recent whirlwind,” he said. “But for me, it’s just about understanding that this is the same game I’ve been playing since I was four years old, nothing has changed, there are just a few more people watching.”
In just one game this season (ironically Friday’s regular-season-finale 3-0 loss at Bloomingdale) Yost failed to get either a hit, score a run or pickup an RBI – and scouts have taken notice.
But through it all, nothing has changed in the makeup of a player on the cusp of some potentially big things in the very near future.
“How he carries himself is just the most mature I’ve ever seen anyone carry themselves at the high school level,” Luksis said. “If you are a normal teacher at our school, you have no idea you are talking to a superstar. Probably none of his teachers know what this kid is going through, where he might be in a few months, he’s just an extremely humble kid.
“There is just zero arrogance to him at all.”
Just getting started: freshman Jordan Yost comes in to score in a Saladino Tournament game back in 2022.
And that is something that Luksis will surely miss, next season, when for the first time in six seasons he won’t have Yost in his lineup, and won’t have Jordan Yost leading his clubhouse, classroom and so much more.
“It’s hard to put into words everything that kid has put into our program,” Luksis said. “Is it the work ethic? Is it the epitome of being a perfect student-athlete, making straight A’s? Is it his ability on the field? Is it his unselfishness? His ability to be a leader?
“Or is it what he’s done for me personally?”
Yost scoring his county-leading 34th run last Tuesday against Gaither.
Luksis’ oldest son Easton, just shy of seven, may shares his father’s love of the New York Yankees, but on the back of his Little League jersey it isn’t Aaron Judge’s #99 he wears.
“My oldest son looks at him like he’s Aaron Judge,” he said. “You ask him who he wants to be when he grows up and he says Jordan Yost. He’s in the backyard everyday pretending to be Jordan Yost. And he’s worn #10 on his jersey for the last couple of years, just like Jordan Yost.”
