Feb. 13, 2003
By Jack Ferdon
The Santa Clara
Pop quiz, hot shot - what's two times zero?
Scott Dougherty, a member of both the basketball and baseball teams, knows the answer. It is the equivalent to the amount of playing time he is likely to get this season in either sport.
The freshman guard and pitcher is currently redshirting for men's hoops Coach Dick Davey and will probably do the same for baseball skipper Mark O'Brien once the basketball season ends.
Dougherty has to attend each basketball practice plus a few baseball practices every week right now, and he has to do so knowing that, come game time, he will be watching from the bench in street clothes.
It is like throwing down on a keg but not getting a beer. Or giving your friends a ride to "Kangaroo Jack" but not getting invited to see it.
"It's hard to just sit on the sideline and watch the games after you've been working hard in practice," said Dougherty, commenting on the hardships endured by him and redshirt freshmen like him. "But I have fun being on the teams - they're a great bunch of guys."
Any redshirt athlete would surely echo those sentiments. For a two-sport athlete like Dougherty, however, the ordeal is twice as bad, twice as boring and twice as often.
"Last week both the basketball and baseball teams had home games on the same day, so I had to watch a baseball game during the day and then go to the basketball game and watch that at night," Dougherty said. "That's kind of boring."
 Redshirt Freshman Scott Dougerty  |
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"It can definitely be hard," Dougherty said. "There's still time to study after I get done with practice, but when you finally get home and you're tired it's hard to be motivated to go to the library or whatever."
But Dougherty has no regrets about becoming a Bronco. After all, he has a pedigree just right for a Santa Clara athlete. He attended Jesuit High School in Portland - a sort of feeder school to Santa Clara - where he averaged 18 points a game and was named the league's Player of the Year for basketball, while at the same time garnered first team all-league honors for baseball. Dougherty's older brother even graduated from Santa Clara last year.
During a visit last spring to see his brother, Dougherty - who, despite his athletic success in high school, was not heavily recruited - met with the coaching staffs of the basketball and baseball teams to let them know of his desire to play. He got a spot on the baseball team from O'Brien and made Davey's team as a walk-on.
Both Davey and O'Brien are glad to have Dougherty.
"He's shown real signs [of talent] in practice recently," Davey said. "He has lots of attributes and a feel for the game. He's going to be a big help for us down the road."
O'Brien, equally enthused about Dougherty, said, "He came out to practice the other day and was just throwing fastball after fastball, strike after strike. He's a lefty with a fantastic arm and a lot of potential."
While Dougherty is slated to be a redshirt for the baseball team this season, O'Brien said that he might see action if the team takes an injury or needs an extra left-hander to come out of the bullpen.
When asked to compare Scott Dougherty the basketball player to Scott Dougherty the baseball player, Dougherty gives the edge to the latter.
"I probably have more natural talent in baseball, and being a lefty pitcher helps, too," he said.
Either way, Dougherty is talented enough to play two different sports at the Division I collegiate level, a boast very few people in the country can make.
"To do what Scott is doing and play two sports in college, you have to be a fantastic athlete," said O'Brien.