WC’s Joe Legin OAC Scholar Athlete of the Month

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WILMINGTON – Being a college student requires a lot of time and throw competing in a sport for four years as well as being involved in many extra-curricular activities makes for a very busy schedule.

Joe Legin, a senior sport management major and four-year baseball player at Wilmington College, has excelled in everything he’s been involved in during his time at WC. The key, according to Joe, is time management.

“My collegiate experience has given me a lot of responsibility, from being a student to an athlete to a leader in my fraternity,” Legin said. “Early on in my collegiate career, I struggled to balance everything, but I grew up a lot and quickly.”

Part of Legin’s growing up was writing down a list of tasks in priority order. That list helped him know what to take care of in what order. Most times, studies came first. Legin graduated from WC with a degree in sport management with minors in business administration and Spanish with a 3.65 grade point average. He earned Academic All-Ohio Athletic Conference honors each of the last three seasons, marking the most an individual can garner such recognition.

He was the OAC Student-Athlete of the Month for May.

“Despite my class load being not as busy as normal, my list of priorities stayed the same – No. 1 school, No. 2 baseball, No. 3 find a job,” said Legin. “I made sure to take care of my class work before doing the job search.”

Some of Joe’s favorite memories during his collegiate experience have been with the sport management program. The program gives its students opportunities to get real-world experience at a number of high-profile events, something that drew Legin to Wilmington and something he took advantage of.

“Alan Ledford [head of WC’s sport management department] does a great job giving us opportunities to work the Super Bowl, the College Football Playoff,” he said. “My favorite trip was going up to Cleveland for a sales expo. There, I got introduced to where I’m going to start my professional career as well as falling in love with the career I’ll be pursuing after college.”

With step No. 1 completed, Legin set his sights on concluding his collegiate baseball career on a high note. The Westerville, Ohio, native did just that, hitting at a .286 clip for the season with seven doubles, 15 RBIs, a home run and a .422 on-base percentage during the 2021 spring season, by far his best career year wearing the green and white.

He also delivered a walk-off single in an 11-10 victory over John Carroll University at Tewksbury-Delaney Field on April 25, something he cited as one of his favorite memories in his four years with the program. Legin helped aid the Fightin’ Quakers to double-digit victories for just the second time in a dozen seasons.

Wilmington allowed Legin the ability to excel both has a student and as an athlete. Joe’s advice to younger student-athletes on this balance – communication.

“If you communicate with your coaching staff as well as your professors, it’s usually fine,” Legin said. “As long as I have an open communication with both of those groups, I’m able to be both. Coach V [Vittorio] and his staff know I’m here to get an education, but my professors know a big reason why I came to Wilmington College was to play baseball.”

As if being a student and a baseball player wasn’t enough, Legin also was heavily involved in Greek life at Wilmington. A four-year member of the Lambda Chi Alpha fraternity, Joe served as vice president, president and most recently alumni chair.

“As vice president, I was charged with maintaining brotherhood morale, which we did by attending Columbus Blue Jackets games, traveling to University of Dayton Flyers’ basketball games and running Greek contests,” Legin recalled. “I transitioned to overseeing our chapter’s communication to headquarters and finished out my time by getting keeping our alumni notified of what we were doing.”

Through his experiences, highlighted by the aforementioned expo, Legin has accepted a job as an account executive with organization business development with the Cleveland Cavaliers, a position he starts on June 1.

“The two biggest traits you need to be successful in the sales world, especially in profession sports, is to be coachable and crazy competitive,” said Legin. “I pride myself in both of those things, and I think my experience at Wilmington College as both as student in the sport management program and a baseball athlete have only helped me further grow in those areas.”

Joe Legin
https://www.wnewsj.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/22/2021/06/web1_WEB_joelegin-3.jpgJoe Legin

Ellen Nilback Photo
https://www.wnewsj.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/22/2021/06/web1_PR_JoeLeginEN-1.jpgEllen Nilback Photo

By Mitch Blankespoor

Wilmington College

Mitch Blankespoor is the director of Athletic Communications and Adjunct Professor at Wilmington College.

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