On June 7^th, just three days after winning a CIF title as a senior, Daniel Camarena made his next step to fulfilling his life long dream of being a professional baseball player when he was drafted by the New York Yankees in the 20^th round of the MLB draft. Daniel was the 629^th pick overall in the draft and one of many players picked from San Diego county.

Last Tuesday, Daniel was sitting at home with his family, his computer hooked up to the TV so they could watch the stream of the draft, which is not televised past pick 255.

“I think it was my mom that saw my name,” Daniel said. “It was pretty cool.”

Daniel was picked by the most storied franchises in the history of the MLB, a team also near to his heart. “I’ve been a fan of the Yankees, and it was really amazing to be drafted by them,” he said.

Just days earlier, Daniel was pitching his final innings as a Don in the CIF championship game against El Capitan. Talking about how it felt to win the CIF crown as a senior, Daniel said, “It was definitely our goal going in to the season, and it was great to do it as a senior. The feeling of all of my teammates – some who I’ve been with for four years – dog piling on me is not describable with words.”

Before the last inning, sophomore Stephen Gonsalves was warming up. When asked if he was at all doubtful that he would finish his last game as senior, Daniel said, “I was getting tired, the heat was getting to me. Coach kept looking at me, but after we scored those two runs, he knew I had to pitch the rest of the game.”

“It’s going to be great when we go back to the school and see that banner on the wall; we’ll definitely be smiling when we see that,” Daniel added.

Daniel can also opt for a baseball scholarship at USD. But he’s had this dream of playing professionally, and being noticed by a professional baseball team coming out of high school is tough; impressing a team enough for them to draft you is incredibly difficult.

MLB amateur draft picks have a few options for his next step. Some prospects are asked by the team directly to begin working through their farm system. Some decide to forgo the full time baseball lifestyle to go to school and work with the team’s farm system over their summer.

“The plan right now is to just keep in touch with [the Yankees],” Daniel said. “We’ll see what happens, but USD is always there. Until then I’m just going to keep working out and polishing my game.”