Steve Ruggeri, a senior at Herrin High School who was named by High School Baseball USA as being one of the top 100 prep players in the nation, has recently signed a national-letter-of-intent to play baseball for the Salukis.

This would not be of any surprise except that Ruggeri was actively recruited by 70 other NCAA Division I schools including Cal StateFullerton, Florida State, Illinois and a host of other well known programs.

SIUC baseball coach Dan Callahan said early recruiting contributed to Ruggeri’s decision to sign with the Salukis.

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I think a couple of things we had on our side were that we got in on him early as far as the recruiting process goes, Callahan said. As the recruiting process evolved we also found out that he was very close to his family.

Making the choice to attend SIUC in the fall of 1996 was not an easy choice for Ruggeri considering the opportunities to venture elsewhere.

It was not an easy choice to make, but my family had a big influence in my decision, Ruggeri said.

Some top high school prospects are lured away from home by the adventure of attending college far from home. Since Ruggeri is close to his family, Callahan’s job of signing him was made a little easier.

Maybe one of our best selling points was the fact that we were close to home so his family would get the chance to see him over the next three or four years, Callahan said.

Thank goodness for our sakes through the closeness to his (Ruggeri’s) familyit consequently helped us, Callahan said.

Callahan said Ruggeri had a few chances to see the team play last year. Likewise, Callahan had the opportunity to see Ruggeri play over the last year or two.

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Ruggeri was not unfamiliar to Callahan before the recruiting process began. Callahan said he had heard about Ruggeri even before he became the head coach for the Salukis.

After seeing him (Ruggeri) play, that was reason enough to start the recruiting process, Callahan said.

Signing guys like Steve Ruggeri is what can help turn the program around if you can get enough of them, Callahan said. We brought in three players this past year who were first-team All-State as seniors.

Ruggeri is not only one of the top 100 high school players in the country, he is also a top notch student.

Callahan said Ruggeri has been encouraged by his family to do well in school and that support will in turn help Ruggeri adjust to college academics.

His academic background is sound, Callahan said. He is very conscientious; his grade point average is good; his class rank is good; his ACT score was good and sometimes there is not always a correlation between the ACT score and how well an individual performs in school.

Ruggeri said that even though he had been recruited by professional scouts, his desire was to go to college first and will welcome the opportunity to play at the professional level later on.

I am interested in sports medicine, but I am undecided on a major right now, Ruggeri said. We’ll have to wait and see how it goes.