It started with a simple Google search and it turned into a fantastic baseball season.
Wilmington College junior Joshua Chua knew he wasn’t destined to be a professional baseball player after three seasons at Citrus Community College in California, so he began looking for a small college where he could get a quality degree and finish his playing career.
“I knew at the end of the day baseball is something I wanted to pursue my entire life, but also knew that I needed a good degree,” said Chua. “I knew baseball is going to only last for so long and knowing sports management was what I was wanting to get into and that I wanted to go to a small private school. My grandparents wanted me to go into an Ivy League (school), and I realistically could have gotten in, but I knew I wasn’t going to be happy there. It wasn’t something I wanted to do. So I looked up the best sports management programs for small private schools and Wilmington was at the top of the list. I applied got in and here I am. Just that easy.”
Once he secured admission and made the decision go almost 2,200 miles from his community college, Chua reached out to Wilmington baseball coach Dan Cleaver to simply let him know his intention of attending the school.
It turned out to be a fantastic decision for both Chua and the baseball team.
Heading into the final week of the season, Chua is hitting .319 (second best on the team) and leads the Quakers in slugging percentage of .558. His six homers, 24 runs scored and 29 RBI are also team-highs. Chua is also third in the Ohio Athletic Conference in homers and doubles, and ninth in RBI. His 44 hits and 13 doubles are both tied for the team lead.
“Josh Chua has added so much to our baseball program,” said Cleaver. “He is a talented baseball player with a major league baseball IQ. His leadership goes beyond the field. Josh is the best example of a good teammate, good citizen and good student. Our program reaps multiple benefits by having Josh Chua on our roster.”
Part of Chua’s success can be traced to the meticulous manner in which he attacks his at-bats, before and after.
“At the end of every at bat, I go back to my notebook and record every pitch that I saw, what the count was, and where the location of the pitch was,” said Chua. “I dabbled with it a little bit in high school at the recommendation of my hitting coach. But, I didn’t really feel like I got a lot out of it. Then I really started doing it toward the end of last season. I think what made a difference was I was able to start putting that information into a spread sheet and, from there, it spits out all the data that I want to see.
“I would say it has definitely improved (me) by allowing me to not guess so much at the plate,” Chua continued. “I know a lot of coaches have their own strategies, they have their own ideas but at the end of the day baseball is baseball.”
A vital member of the Wilmington College Student-Athlete Advisory Committee, Chua has worked in the athletic department and with the softball program.
“Josh is an extraordinary young man,” said Wilmington College associate athletic director and head softball coach Beth Floyd. “He’s hard-working in all aspects of his life. He strives to be the best he can be and is committed to doing his best. Josh is a natural leader because of the strong moral foundation and his work ethic. The sky’s the limit for Josh. He’s going to do great things.
Chua’s journey to Wilmington featured three countries and a couple of states. He was born in Lancaster, England, and his family moved to a small town near Toronto, Canada within a year. After living in Canada for 14 years, his family moved to Los Angeles.
His father is a Christian minister in Claremont and his mother is the assistant pastor. They have five children with Chua being the oldest and the only boy.
Chua’s four sisters are a junior at Western Kentucky University, a freshman at Citrus Community College, a junior in high school and an eighth grader. He also reluctantly admitted to being the least athletic. One of his siblings never caught the sports bug, but is excelling in mathematics, said Chua.
“Honestly, growing up with four sisters, if I was the youngest it would have been worse, but being the oldest has not been bad at all,” Chua admitted. “Three of the four (sisters) are very athletic, so we spend a lot of time playing sports together. My parents did a really good job — even though there is a nine-year age gap between my youngest sister and I — of keeping us very close.
“Like if you are trying to describe your perfect picture family it would be our family,” Chua added.
This summer Chua heads to Northern Ohio for a group sales internship with the Cleveland Monsters (a minor league hockey team) and Cleveland Gladiators (an arena football team).
