KNOXVILLE - With single-sport specialization at an all-time high among youth, it's becoming more rare for athletes to play multiple sports as high school seniors, let alone at the NCAA Division I level.
But Tennessee football coach Jeremy Pruitt and baseball coach Tony Vitello already have teamed up to recruit an athlete with aspirations of doing just that.
Trevon Flowers of Tucker, Ga., signed to play football with Tennessee this month as a three-star defensive back recruit. He also plays shortstop at Tucker High School and will have a chance to play baseball for the Volunteers during the spring. He previously had signed to play baseball at Kentucky.
"Tony, he actually was heavily involved in the recruiting process (with Flowers)," Pruitt said. "The thing about it is everyone thinks about two sports. Well he's going to do football in the fall, and then you've got your training in the spring. But there's only 15 days when you come to playing baseball and also doing spring football practice. So that's easy to work around that."
During Flowers' visit to campus last month in advance of signing day, Pruitt included a stop at Lindsey Nelson Stadium, where the baseball team was scrimmaging. Pruitt and Vitello stood outside the dugout on the third-base line and talked for several minutes.
"It's exciting with him and a couple other guys that Coach Pruitt's staff and our staff have recently talked about recruiting together," Vitello said Thursday. "I think all in all, young athletes need to focus on competing instead of specializing."
A 2017 study by the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons described single-sport specialization as a "growing phenomenon." Forty-five percent of high school athletes are specializing in just one sport, and those who specialize are doing so at an earlier age than ever before.
Prominent figures in Tennessee athletics history such as Todd Helton and Condredge Holloway played baseball and football in college before settling on one to pursue professionally - baseball for Helton, football for Holloway. Quarterback Joshua Dobbs, drafted last year by the Pittsburgh Steelers, flirted with playing baseball while at Tennessee but never did.
Football programs are permitted to have 15 practices during the spring. Tennessee's first one this year is March 20, the same day as a home baseball game. The annual Orange and White spring football game is April 21, the same day the baseball team hosts Texas A&M.
Though it would mean negotiating conflicting schedules, both coaches see benefits with a player who is athletic and determined enough to try to continue both sports. Flowers earned a starting spot in the secondary at Tucker as a senior after giving up football to focus on baseball after his eighth-grade year. Though he wasn't on the gridiron for three years, Pruitt acknowledged Flowers has "excellent" skills.
"He played shortstop on his high school team and he'd possibly be getting drafted, but he wants to go to school, he wants to play football and he's going to be really good at it," Pruitt said. "I think the sky's the limit with him. The good thing is he's only done it for a year, so he doesn't have any bad habits. He could play corner for us, he could play star, he could play safety. When we get him here, we'll see what he's best suited for."
Vitello said the next question is if Flowers will have the determination to stick with both sports.
"Ultimately, a year or two down the road in his career here, there could be extenuating circumstances for him and his family to decide, 'This is the one area we need to go,'" Vitello said. "But I think kids cut themselves short sometimes."
Contact David Cobb at dcobb@timesfreepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @DavidWCobb and on Facebook at facebook.com/volsupdate.