Catching Up With Travis Reifsnider '18

What a fickle sport baseball can be!
Humbling, too, and exhilarating and a range of emotions in between.
 
Case in point…
 
On March 14, 2021, James Madison’s Travis Reifsnider went 0-for-6 with five strikeouts in the Dukes’ 17-7 loss to VMI before their home crowd at Veterans Memorial Park in Harrisonburg.
 
“Definitely a long game,” the 2018 Collegiate graduate said one day recently when recalling the moment.
 
The next afternoon — same venue, same time, basically same conditions — Reifsnider, then a redshirt sophomore, drilled three home runs in five plate appearances, scored four runs, and finished with a career-high five runs batted in to lead his guys to a 12-7 victory.
 
“Back-to-back games, polar opposite results,” he said. “That’s one of the reasons I fell in love with baseball. You can be the best player in the world one day and the worst player the next or vice versa.
 
“Something my coaches have instilled in me and something I’ve really tried to instill in myself is having the confidence to know that even if you fail, you’re still a good player. You don’t have to change a lot of things just because you fail one day. I stuck with what had made me successful. Coming out the next day and having confidence and trusting myself to put the ball in play ended up working out well.”
 
As did his four-year career as a student-athlete at JMU.
 
This past spring, when he played mostly catcher but also in the outfield and as a designated hitter, the 6-4, 230-pound Reifsnider hit .303 with nine doubles, one triple, 13 home runs (tied for tops in the Colonial Athletic Association), 37 RBI, and a CAA-leading .632 slugging percentage. He also stole 11 bases in 11 attempts, hit safely in 10 consecutive games between April 9-23, and earned first team All-CAA and All-East Coast Athletic Conference and second team all-state honors.
 
He graduated in May with a B.S. in sport and recreation management, split time this summer between the Peninsula Pilots (Coastal Plain League) and Strasburg Express (Valley League), and plans to use his final season of eligibility playing for the University of Virginia as a graduate transfer.
 
As his summer season wound to a close and with his next adventure on the horizon, Reifsnider spoke openly of his journey that began on the playing fields of Collegiate where he excelled both in baseball and football and has included experiences that run the gamut from thrilling to heart-rending.
 
You’re listed as a catcher. What about that position speaks to you?
My sisters and brother played lacrosse, and I played goalie in (Geronimo) lacrosse. When I made the transition to baseball, it was a natural progression to catch after playing goalie. I was also one of the only kids when I was that young that wasn’t scared of the ball so I stuck with it. Being involved in every play in a baseball game was something that really interested me. I felt like I had a lot of control and could make a really big impact when I was behind the plate. Those things combined made me stick with it into college.
 
Speak about your preparation at Collegiate for the next level.
Baseball-wise, I was prepared as well as I could have been with Coach (Andrew) Slater. He’ll probably be one of the best coaches I’ve ever had and a great guy as well. He really wants everyone to grow up and be the best man he can be as well as the best player. Can’t say enough about Coach Slater. A huge separator for a lot of college athletes that really overwhelms them is the academic [workload]. They get really overwhelmed and don’t know how to manage their time, especially with 45-to-50 hours a week of athletics and you also have school. Collegiate, being as hard as it can be and teaching you management skills, was huge for me because I never felt like I was drowning in schoolwork.
 
Speak about your JMU experience.
I really can’t say enough good about JMU. I went to summer school before my freshman year and made friends quickly with the baseball team and outside the team. Everyone was super friendly. Everyone seemed to want every other person on campus to succeed. Everyone’s cheering for everyone else. JMU is very special in that way. It’s obviously a really beautiful campus. I couldn’t have asked for a better place to spend four years. I love this place.
 
This past spring marked the tragic passing of Lauren Bernett, the catcher on JMU’s softball team. Speak about your decision to switch from your No. 6 to her No. 22.
So…Lauren was No. 22 on the softball team. Our No. 22 was Chase DeLauter, who got picked in the first round of the [Major League] draft. He’d broken his foot just before she passed, so he wasn’t playing for the rest of the year. The opportunity presented itself where I could wear 22 because Chase couldn’t play, and I thought that was a really good way to honor Lauren because we’d see the softball team day-in, day-out. We share a facility (Memorial Hall) with them. Our locker rooms are really close to each other.  It [wearing No. 2] was in support of the softball girls we’d still be seeing every day, showing them that I had their back and if they ever needed anything, they could feel free to reach out. It was received pretty well, which I was happy about.
 
Speak about the effect the tragedy had on your community.
Mental health in athletes is something that I would say is wildly under-addressed. Everyone everywhere has struggles. It’s not limited just to student-athletes, but student-athletes put themselves under a ton of strain day-in and day-out whether it’s academically or on the field or off the field. They’re taught to be tough. Taught to not show emotions. Taught to show no weakness. In reality, that’s a really unhealthy way to go about life.
 
It’s a tough, lonely road, especially for kids that are in their late teens and early 20s. For them to act like nothing’s ever going on, nothing’s ever going wrong, is really unhealthy.
 
What motivated you to transfer after your positive experiences at JMU?
It’s a couple of different reasons. What do I need to do to put myself in position to play professional baseball? That’s the end goal. That’s not to say you can’t play professional baseball from the CAA or from JMU, but it was time for me to take the next step. When I went into the [transfer] portal, I was lucky enough to get recruited by a couple of different schools in the ACC and the SEC. We finished our season on a Saturday. On Sunday, I drove to UVA and visited with Coach [Brian] O’Connor for three hours with my parents and pretty much committed on the spot.
 
What are your expectations about playing time?
I really don’t trust a coach who guarantees playing time unless it’s an obvious situation where I went somewhere that wasn’t good. At a school like UVA, I didn’t need them to promise me playing time. I wanted them to promise me a chance to compete. So I’ll compete to be in the outfield. They have a catcher (Kyle Teel) who’s returning that’s an All-American. When he needs a break, I’ll catch and also play a little first base. They recruited me as an offensive player who can also play several places on defense.
 
What makes playing baseball fun?
It’s probably a cliché, but failing as much as you do in the game of baseball makes the success almost addicting. When you get out seven times out of 10, you’re still a solid baseball player. Those three times, you’re riding the ultimate high when you get a hit.
 
What would you tell a middle school kid with dreams of competing in baseball (or any other sport) in college?
I’d probably say a lot. First, if you set your mind on something, don’t let other people tell you you can’t do it. When I was an 8th or 9th grader, I had coaches at a college camp tell me that I wasn’t good enough to play college baseball. You’ll always have people who’ll doubt you. Putting your head down and working really hard can solve a lot of those problems. I would also say, Don’t be afraid to fail. If you try something and give it your best and it doesn’t end up working out, you can still look yourself in the mirror and tell yourself you tried your best instead of being scared to fail and not trying at all.
 
        
 
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