Six-foot-seven Ben Cleveland may fit in a little more on the football field, but that doesn't stop him from having success on the diamond.
Photo courtesy of Duane Winn/The Toccoa Record
Even though he's the biggest student at
Stephens County (Toccoa, Ga.),
Ben Cleveland no longer has to carry his birth certificate wherever he goes.
Though he was just 8 1/2 pounds at birth, the 6-foot-7, 322-pound two-sport sophomore star grew quickly and had to provide his birth certificate often before age 13. He told MaxPreps, "Sometimes it got to be a little bit of a pain. People in town knew me, but when I went out of town it was a pain."
Stephens County baseball coach Greg McCall added, "Nobody ever believed the age he was at whatever age."
Ben Cleveland, Stephens County
Photo courtesy of Duane Winn/The Toccoa Record
While playing under-14 baseball, he knocked the opposing catcher out cold in a home-plate collision and both he and his father (Derek) were thrown out of the game. Cleveland recalled, "My dad told me that if I was 100 pounds lighter then we never would have been thrown out."
Still growing, he is just 15 years old - won't be 16 until August.
"I'm still one of the youngest (in school), including the freshmen," he pointed out.
Despite his youth, Cleveland already has developed into one of the premier offensive linemen in the country and his sophomore year was so good that scouts now must view him as a legitimate baseball prospect, too.
During the recently completed baseball campaign, the towering first baseman - batting in the No. 5 slot - averaged a lofty .516 with 12 home runs, 31 runs and he drove in 34 runs. He also walked 15 times, many intentional, and struck out 16 times. His slugging percentage was a terrific 1.086 and his on-base percentage was .607.
And he also stole five bases in five attempts.
"That's the big thing (freaky speed for his size) that puts him above a lot of people," McCall noted. "Once they see him run they understand that he's an athlete."
He runs 40 yards in an outstanding 5.09 seconds. He also bench presses 425 pounds and has a 26-inch vertical jump.
Remember, now, he's just 15 years old. He's projected to grow another inch or two and has been told he easily can carry another 20 pounds without losing his quickness. He already wears a size 18E shoe.
"I've always been pretty quick," Cleveland acknowledged. "I've never been a slow, clumsy person. When I got to high school, I got quicker, probably just from working out. I went to a few training sessions in Atlanta, but it's mostly from working with my coaches at school."
That quickness, combined with his size, made him an immediate Division I recruit as a freshman, and the offers keep pouring in. He already has solid offers from such powers as Georgia, Florida, Alabama, Clemson, Texas, South Carolina, Wisconsin and Michigan.
As a freshman, Cleveland averaged close to six pancake blocks a game and this year raised his average to 10 per outing. He collected 12 in a game against Lumpkin County (Dahlonega) and graded out as a prestigious "Hog" that night. A "Hog" is based on such things as aggressiveness and committing very few mental errors.
Ben Cleveland, Stephens County
Photo courtesy of Duane Winn/The Toccoa Record
His former football coach, Travis Noland, who has moved on to Oconee County (Watkinsville), admits he's going to miss Cleveland.
He conceded, "It's hard to leave a player like him because he's a once-in-a-lifetime player. He is friends with both of my sons. It's just been a joy being around him. He has such a great attitude and always has a smile on his face. He's got an unbelievable future in football. I won't be surprised to see him in the first round (in the NFL Draft) some day."
Baseball, on the other hand, is a work in progress because he has no solid college offers.
Duane Winn, who has covered Cleveland for the Toccoa Record, admits he didn't expect him to have such a breakout year during his first season as a starter.
"He surprised me with his ability in baseball," Winn conceded. "I expected him to not be so nimble. He's crushed a couple of home runs that probably haven't landed yet. There's a definite ping in his bat. As the season progressed opposing coaches intentionally walked him more and more. He had three in his next-to-last game."
Cleveland related, "After I hit a couple of home runs, I started seeing more intentional walks. If they weren't walking me they were pitching around me. Everybody wants a chance to hit, so it got really frustrating."
As Cleveland grows, his legend also continues to grow in Toccoa and beyond. His appetite is prodigious, though he has very little fat on his well-conditioned body, but he also loves double cheeseburgers.
"I don't know (his record), but it's a bunch," he said of his favorite burgers. "I can put them down, that's for sure. I've made five or six multiple times (at one sitting)."
Ben Cleveland, Stephens County
Photo courtesy of Duane Winn/The Toccoa Record
On one occasion when he was sick and stayed home from school, all he could find to eat was biscuits. So he went outside, shot two squirrels and had squirrel gravy and biscuits for lunch.
"It was the first time I had that, but it was really good," he said in a pleased voice.
The Georgia teenager is an avid outdoorsman, hunting and fishing. He caught an 85-pound stingray off the pier at Myrtle Beach three years ago and has shot four deer (three with a bow and arrow).
He carries a 3.6 GPA and hopes to major in wildlife management when he attends college. It wouldn't be a great stretch to see him as a real-life Paul Bunyan if he ever became a forest ranger.
Concerning sports, he's got two years to choose the path he wants to pursue in college.
As of today, he says, "If I think I have the ability to start in both, then I'll try to play both."
Two-sport professionals are rare, indeed, but Cleveland has the potential to be the next great one.
