B-CC baseball player Will Adkinson talks about the team’s undefeated start and overcoming a terrible injury

Adkinson took a line drive to the head and lost his hearing in one ear

Will Adkinson / Bradley Steiner

Will Adkinson III is one of the seniors on Bethesda-Chevy Chase High School’s (Maryland) varsity baseball team. The two positions he plays are pitcher and shortstop.

“I pitch once every three games,” Adkinson said. “Then I’ll play shortstop for the remaining ones. If I’m pitching, I’ll come in after I pitch and play shortstop.”

The Barons are off to a hot start with an undefeated 8-0 record at spring break, solidifying their status as one of the best high school baseball teams in Montgomery County.

“These games are really important in terms of seeding and the county championship,” Adkinson said. “Even if we’re down in a game, I think we’ve done a great job that knowing we still have everything it takes. But even if we win, we still have to get the job done next game. I don’t think any other team has the culture that we have.”

Adkinson is playing under new head coach Andrew Brilliant, who took over for B-CC’s previous longtime head coach, John Schmidt. Schmidt had been the school’s baseball coach for 15 years before leaving for Oakdale High School.

“It was a stable program for so long,” Adkinson said. “With Coach Brilliant and some of our seniors, upperclassmen and younger classmen, we’ve done such a good job of making that change seamless.”

Adkinson has also been overcoming a form of adversity. In June of last year, the Chevy Chase native was playing in a DMV Prospects game in Richmond, where he took a hard line drive to the head. As a result, Adkinson lost hearing in his left ear.

“I remember just waking up in the ambulance having no hearing in either ear,” Adkinson said. “I was so lucky to have that only happen to my left ear. If that hits you in the temple, that’s not going to be good.”

Nine months after that injury, Adkinson is now back on the diamond and has been having a superb season for the undefeated Barons. In Wednesday’s contest against Churchill, the 17-year-old went 5 for 6 at the plate with three doubles and two RBIs.

“It made me really appreciate how lucky we are to just be able to play,” Adkinson said. “It made me more grateful for every game I play, and know that at some point, you could have a career-ending injury that could end it all.”

DMV Prospects, the travel team that Adkinson played for, is the D.C. Metro area’s premier College Showcase team. The club features various players in the D.C. area from local high schools such as B-CC, Whitman and Walter Johnson.

“We just know each other so well, which adds to the competitiveness,” Adkinson said. “Playing Whitman is electric. You can be in the stands for a game between Whitman and B-CC, you could know nothing about baseball, and it’s still going to be electric just watching it.”

Luckily for Adkinson, his parents were there by his side and supported him the whole way through his recovery.

“When I started playing again, they were watching and making sure I was all right after every game,” Adkinson said. “Making sure I was hydrated. They really helped me be able to return to the field, which I was really grateful for.”

Even while losing hearing in one ear, the B-CC senior has really adjusted under the new head coach.

“The big thing Coach Brilliant has done this year is kept us loose in a way where we’re having a lot more fun playing,” Adkinson said. “The reason we’ve had so much success is because we love doing it. No one is forced to play.”

With the Barons undefeated at the moment, Adkinson going on to win an MPSSAA 4A high school baseball state title in his senior year would be “full-circle.”

“I’ve thought about it since freshman year,” he said. “I’m not trying to get ahead right now. Staying undefeated is the first thing, and focusing on every game to get the best seeding possible. We have the country championship, too, which we want to win. (A state title) would be everything for me.”

Adkinson got into baseball really early in life, thanks to his father, Will Adkinson Jr., a lawyer. He played multiple sports, but decided by age 4 that he was more into baseball.

“I signed up for tee-ball,” Adkinson said. “Since then, it’s been my main sport. Even when I’ve played other sports, it’s always been baseball first for me.”

Adkinson wears the No. 7 on his jersey because of Mickey Mantle, whom his father idolized. In terms of Will III’s baseball idols, he has looked up to MLB players such as Mike Trout, Ian Desmond and Max Scherzer. Desmond and Scherzer played for the Washington Nationals, Adkinson’s favorite team.

When Adkinson was younger, he got to see Max Scherzer’s no-hitter against the Pittsburgh Pirates in June 2015. The B-CC pitcher has even compared himself to Scherzer on the mound.

On Christmas Day of last year, Adkinson announced he has committed to play baseball at Babson College, a Division III school in Babson Park, MA. There, he will join former Barons teammate Bobby Burk, a freshman at the college.

“It’s a good school for me,” Adkinson said. “It’s a really top-of-the-notch D-III program. I had Division I schools I could have gone to, but it was the best academic fit for me. It’s just a business school, and that was the only major I cared about. It fit baseball-wise — they’re one of the top 15 nationally D-III programs that can win the national championship.”

As for playing in MLB one day, it’s likely not in the cards for Adkinson’s future.

“I think that was always what I thought about doing,” Adkinson said. “But MLB is probably not anymore. Just a state championship.”

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