‘Don’t sell yourself short.’ Catching up with former Bellefonte baseball star CJ funk
Editor’s note: The Centre Daily Times plans a recurring Q&A series to catch up with homegrown athletes. To share ideas about who we should feature, email cdtscores@centredaily.com.
Former Bellefonte baseball star CJ Funk has settled into his role with Pitt. The 2020 graduate made a choice to leave home during a year of uncertainty, learning more about himself in the process.
He struggled in his freshman year at Pitt in 2021, slashing .000/.125/.000 in seven at-bats. The sophomore made a large improvement in 2022, batting .298/.476/.511 with 42 hits, nine doubles, three triples, five home runs and 24 runs batted in over the course of 141 at-bats.
Funk recently spoke with the Centre Daily Times about his time at Bellefonte, how he selected Pitt, how he worked to overcome his first-year struggles after losing his senior high school season to COVID-19 and his connection to a former State College outfielder.
Centre Daily Times: What was your time at Bellefonte like and playing with that group of players?
CJ Funk: I’d say my time in high school was enjoyable. I enjoyed playing with all the guys for the 3-4 years I was there. Now while playing college baseball, it makes me feel like those times are the best times of your life. When you hit college, baseball becomes more demanding than in high school. (In high school) you do it for fun ... I had a lot of fun doing it and there’s definitely a lot of kids that came through (Bellefonte) that I played with that made the experience enjoyable for sure.
CDT: How did you choose Pitt? And what was the recruiting experience, especially as someone who grew up so close to Penn State — was it exciting to branch out?
CF: It definitely didn’t sit well with a lot of people that are very die-hard Penn State fans. But choosing Pitt for me, I guess when I took all my visits, I felt like that it was the best fit for me in terms of my relationships with the coaching staff in terms of the facilities I visited. I just felt an immediate bond with the place in general and the people that were there to support me. My major there is finance and in terms of branching out, I guess I wanted to be somewhere else. I’m close enough to home where my family wanted to come to the games and stuff. Like that wasn’t too big of a hassle for them ... I feel like that’s what I was meant to do.
CDT: What’s it like to be able to play Penn State a couple of times each season?
CF: Yeah, that’s definitely a cool thing. Unfortunately the game at Medlar got canceled this year. (Playing there) is not something that I really thought about when I committed there, but it was definitely a cool experience with them. I know a couple of guys that we saw and it’s always a cool thing to play against guys who I grew up playing with as well.
CDT: How do you feel like you’ve developed as a player at Pitt?
CF: It’s been phenomenal — like absolutely crazy. I feel like when I went there, my freshman year, obviously coming from the year I didn’t play that senior year. A lot of freshmen and I didn’t play that year prior. We came in pretty raw. It’s not a whole lot of live reps before playing a lot of time. So I felt like it took me a long time to get used to the atmosphere of playing collegiate baseball and just playing baseball again in general. I kind of struggled my freshman year doing it. I felt that I wasn’t doing very well and I felt like all I really needed was just an opportunity to go and get more reps, play baseball again and enjoy the game. I did that in the summer before my sophomore year and had a really good fall and I think it translated pretty well to the spring.
CDT: There are a bunch of great players that come from Centre County, too. One of those players is Jack Hurley and you guys are both in the same conference and play in the outfield. How fun has it been competing against somebody that’s the same age as you grew up right down the road in State College?
CF: Jack and I have played with each other and travel ball ever since we were 13-14 years old, so I know Jack really well. It was awesome to see him have a real exceptional year this year (at Virginia Tech). He works his tail off. He really deserved everything that came this way this year and he has a really bright future ahead and it’s awesome to see guys like him. There’s other guys or athletes in general from this area that have done well in their respective sports. And it’s a really, really cool way to represent the Centre County area in general. And he had a phenomenal year and I was really happy for him.
CDT: What are some of your future goals as a baseball player and as a student?
CF: In terms of baseball, just keep plugging away. There’s always more work to be done. There’s always something to improve upon. I don’t feel like I’ve played my best baseball this year. I definitely feel like there’s better things to come. I feel like it’s a student, same sort of deal. I have a lot more room to improve, and I feel like my biggest thing right now is not to get complacent. And just keep plugging away and knowing that this is a really valuable time of life right now to grow individually, as a person to be growing relationships. All of those things become important in life as well. So, I guess in terms of both is just trying to improve upon every area that I can and do the best I can be.
CDT: What kind of message do you want to send to other Centre County baseball players? Matt Adams made people feel like, look, we can all we can make it to from Centre County to making it to the majors one day or we could have very good minor league careers or very exceptionally strong college careers. Players like Jack (Hurley), others and yourself, are you guys trying to set that new standard of Centre County baseball?
CF: It doesn’t really matter where you’re from. Don’t sell yourself short. Definitely those who are younger coming up through playing ball in high school and travel (ball), they don’t take anything for granted. ... When you look back and you’re in college playing ball somewhere. Do you want to look back and say, ‘I gave it my all. I gave it every bit of myself to grow, not just as a baseball player, but as an individual.’ School has to be really important to you. You don’t go to school just to play baseball. You also have to like the school aspect of it, and it’s just the harsh realities that not a lot of people make it out of college baseball to play professionally.
So, you gotta have that backup plan and to be very determined. Just remind yourself where you’re from. And I think that’s a lot of what you see from Centre County players that have played collegiately is we all remind ourselves where we’re from and know that all of the communities together have really been supportive of all of us guys and girls to get where we are today and I feel like that’s very important as well.
This story was originally published July 3, 2022 at 6:00 AM.
