Joey Velazquez stormed down the tunnel at Ohio Stadium last November, taking the field for warmups as a linebacker for the Michigan football team. The scarlet-and-grey crowd around him rained down cheers, if you can believe it, as Columbus’ own came home. Regardless of his affiliation with That Team Up North, they were just happy to see him.
Or at least, that’s what he thought.
“Everybody started cheering, but obviously Ohio State was running out on their side of the tunnel too,” Velazquez told The Michigan Daily. “But like, I thought they were cheering for me. … I realized they weren’t cheering for us, but that’s how I thought about it.”
In another world, maybe the Buckeyes faithful really would’ve been cheering for him. One of the best baseball prospects in his state, Velazquez committed to play baseball for Ohio State his sophomore year of high school. But he didn’t just want to play baseball — he wanted to play college football, too. So six years later, Velazquez is doing both. But instead of with the Buckeyes, he’s with archrival Michigan.
“There’s always that feeling where you want to give it a shot,” Velazquez said. “And I didn’t want to have a ‘what if’ if I was able to play football. And once I was able to get the offers for football, (I was) able to chase that dream.”
Signing Velazquez was a dream come true for the Wolverines, too — especially on the diamond. He was a prolific player who batted over .500 for St. Francis De Sales High School — just six miles from Ohio Stadium. He won three All-Ohio titles and was arguably the top prospect in his state. Paired up with a talented best friend in Caden Kaiser, the duo tried to recruit a big class to join them with the Buckeyes.
So at first, then-Michigan baseball coach Erik Bakich wasn’t even interested in Velazquez. There’s a handshake agreement in baseball not to chase committed recruits, and Bakich wasn’t one to go back on tradition.
But Jim Harbaugh isn’t a baseball coach — he’s a football coach. With that, he had a wild pitch for Velazquez: He could play both sports for the Wolverines, and he could even play his favorite position at Michigan: linebacker.
It was a curveball in everyone’s plans.
So instead of a trip across town, the nine-member Velazquez family took the 190-mile trip to Ann Arbor to visit for both sports. They made a lasting impression, so Bakich checked one last box in his recruiting process. He went down to Columbus and watched Velazquez play.
“He hit two home runs the day I watched him with a wood bat,” Bakich told The Daily. “I mean, he’s just a phenomenal player. … More importantly, the thing that I just kept going back to being so impressed with was just the discipline, the structure, the organization and the intangible skills that the family was raising their children with.”
Discipline also helped Velazquez understand what he wanted to do. He had professional baseball prospects and a future playing alongside his childhood friends at Ohio State. But with Harbaugh and Bakich, he had a chance to reach for his dreams of playing football and baseball together.
So, Velazquez swung. He called up then-Buckeyes baseball coach Greg Beals and told him he was switching to Michigan.
“I know that was hard for him to make that phone call and tell (Beals) that he’s gonna take the Michigan football offer and he was going to basically walk on for baseball,” said De Sales baseball coach Tom Neubert. “… And that was tough, especially when you’re talking about the rivalry and everything, but football was the one that pushed him over.”
But Velazquez didn’t just have to answer to Beals. He also had to answer to his friends, including Kaiser, who he had played with since elementary school.
“He called me and told me the news that he was gonna play both at Michigan and I had such mixed emotions about that,” Kaiser told The Daily. “I was torn because I knew that we wouldn’t play together, but also very happy for him because I knew he’s always wanted to play both (sports) in college and it was fulfilling one of his dreams.”
With that support inspiring him, Velazquez soon set off to Ann Arbor for fall camp. Some athletes might struggle to maintain one workload, but he willingly doubled it and didn’t cut corners. No coach has seen him miss a lift — even through injury or when baseball and football intersect in the spring. No matter what, he is doing the best he can to make an impact for his team. He even patiently answers all the random questions from each side about what it’s like to play the other sport.
Frankly, he’s used to it. Growing up, he juggled both sports for years. In each one, he showed his leadership by getting teammates to buy in. He knew when to be serious, like when he laid what Kaiser called “the hardest hit I’ve ever seen” on a ball carrier in middle school. Velazquez also knew how to be funny, like when he got a jittery team to focus up by trying to rap. “He was just talking with some rhythm, it was not rapping,” Kaiser cracked.
Both sides of Velazquez complemented his talent on the field. That showed from a young age.
“Joey was frequently filling holes from the safety spot like a linebacker just because he would read the play,” said Eric Hanna, Velazquez’s middle school football coach and a former Buckeyes basketball player. “And he was so savvy and so understanding of where the play was going and what needed to be filled.”
Even going into high school, his schedule some days included morning baseball games, then an afternoon college football camp, followed by another baseball game at night. Lots of miles traveled, and not much time for anything else.
With so much going on, Velazquez still excelled. He played outfield and even pitched in high school. On the gridiron, he played safety for three years before moving to linebacker. On offense, he played running back who even got some reps under center when his quarterback got hurt.
“(Velazquez) was the best athlete, so who do you want to touch the ball?,” Neubert said. “Who do you want at the plate? Him. Who do I want on the mound? Him. Because of just who he is and his character and a kid you trust. That’s important from a coach.”
It goes to show, Velazquez is willing to give up a lot to play both sports. Switching allegiance from Ohio State to Michigan is only one mountain he’s willing to move.
Velazquez is willing to make that sacrifice because of how his family raised him. His father ran a commercial roofing company, and his mom took care of Velazquez and his six siblings. They taught their children to be disciplined, structuring their lives around all their commitments. Nothing could be half effort. Everything was earned.
“I remember when I would go to sleepovers, Joey couldn’t do breakfast until he did like 10 pushups,” Kaiser said. “And then he would do that like every day.”
It’s the same discipline that carried over into college athletics.
“He has that goal-centered mindset where he’s centered around what he needs to do for the day to help him be in the best spot possible,” former baseball teammate and roommate Tito Flores told The Daily. “And I remember vivid times where he had football practice, and then he was like, ‘Hey Tito, can you stay after, can we hit?’ or ‘Can you get some guys to stay after and can we get the (pitching) machine. That’s just the type of guy Joey is — it’s a nonstop motor for him and he continues to outwork everybody.”
Such a work ethic made Velazquez a coach’s dream, especially for the Michigan football team. While he doesn’t always take the field, Velazquez is someone others look up to. Even graduate cornerback Mike Sainristil, who almost everyone credits as the best leader on the team, looks up to him. Coaches do the same.
“I think when you’re an older player, the number one thing you can do is be really consistent because you’re always somebody that the young people can look to for help,” defensive coordinator Jesse Minter said. “… He’s the epitome of like, hey, maybe he’s not playing as much as he wants, but he attacks every single day. He attacks every rep.”
On the baseball diamond, it’s much the same. Velazquez has shined in big moments, including a three-hit game in the 2022 Big Ten Tournament to help the Wolverines clinch a championship. He boasts a .254 career batting average, alongside nine home runs and 51 RBI.
Even if he’s playing up north, Velazquez still keeps his ties to Columbus strong. He and Ohio State alumnus Hanna have a friendly competition in football and basketball where if Michigan beats Ohio State, Hanna volunteers as many hours of community service as the point difference. If the Buckeyes win, Velazquez does the work.
“It’s just our fun little back and forth like, hey, we’ll cheer for our squad and then we’ll do something good to follow up,” Hanna said. “… The fact I got to coach him, the relationship we have — I mean, that’s gonna carry beyond any uniform he could put on from here on out.”
Those ties exist on the field, too. Last season in his senior year, he also got to play against Kaiser’s Buckeyes in Columbus. Afterward, their families took plenty of pictures, causing confusion for fans that didn’t know his story.
It’s a tale that’s far from over. He’s got the rest of football season and a whole spring of baseball ahead of him. That means more games against the Buckeyes, and more games where he hears his hometown rally for his opponent.
Joey Velazquez could’ve done the easy thing and ditched football for a baseball career with his hometown team. But by taking a risk on Michigan, he got to accomplish his athletic dreams.