Brighton High School’s Brandon Stricklin wants to give up four distinct weather seasons – sometimes all in one day – for something a little more consistent.

                And warmer.

                Stricklin chose to attend South Mountain Community College in Phoenix. He’ll sign the letter of intent later in the spring.

                “I chose South Mountain because of the community they have started and how strong of a program with them,” he said. “It was also easy because of the super senior classes as well going into college.”

He was able to visit the school, meet his new teammates and his new coaching staff.

“I had multiple schools that were interested,” Stricklin said. “I had plenty of different offers from all different schools.”

BHS was 11-7 last spring and advanced to the second round of the state 5A playoffs. In those 18 games, Stricklin batted .351 with five home runs and 19 RBIs. Eleven of his 20 hits were for extra bases.

“No, the distance from home isn’t an issue, because I travel a lot during the fall and summer for baseball for years now,” Stricklin said. “I would like to see where my baseball career takes me and see where my engineering also takes me as well after college.”

Recruiting is stressful in the best of times. For a lot of high-school athletes, the recruiting process has been weird, at best, the last two years.

“Recruiting during the pandemic was, for sure, challenging with sending emails and videos to colleges and coaches instead of them physically being able to see you in person,” Stricklin said. “It was also really good to stay in contact with all of them, because it was all online and it was a great experience.”