Will Fountain has become a vital part of the Fox Creek baseball team both at the plate and on the mound.

And on Nov. 20, all his hard work paid off after he signed to continue playing at the University of South Carolina Beaufort following his senior season.

“Words can’t even describe how I feel,” he said. “I mean, I’ve worked an endless amount of time, all my years of my life, I’ve devoted it all to baseball, and it just, it feels like a weight off my shoulders knowing that I have a place to go next year to call home and keep playing baseball.”

Head coach Roby Gillespie has watched Fountain grow up on and off the baseball diamond after taking over the program three years ago. For him, the biggest difference has been in his leadership as he’s stepped up going into his final season.

“My first time coaching him was a summer league game,” he said. “And leading off is Will Fountain and his first at-bat, like second pitch of the game, he hits a long drive off the center field wall, I was like, oh my goodness, who is this kid? And then just watching him compete on the mound the past couple of years. He’s very compassionate, very genuine on the mound. Like, he doesn’t hide his emotions on the mound. And there’s sometimes I’m, like, ‘he’s got to tone it back in,’ so he’ll hear me bark something from the dugout, he’s, like, ‘I know, I know.’ And so just having that relationship where we can communicate with each other and just that genuine respect for each other, but just knowing that he’s going to give me his best every single night, no matter whether he is playing center field for us or on the mound.”

It was a slow start to the recruiting process for Fountain. He said he didn’t start seeing interest from schools until last summer, when he played for Perfect Game and made connections through those coaches.

From there, it didn’t take long for him to find a place that felt like the right fit.

 “I liked everything that Beaufort was about,” Fountain said. “The head coach. I mean, it just felt like home. Like I knew from the day I visited that that’s where I wanted to go.”