White Plains Native and University of Richmond’s Kyle Adams Homecoming at Fordham
The Adams Family has a well known athletic and educational tradition in White Plains. Sue Adams teaches physical education at the Highlands Middle School and is a legendary White Plains High School Girls Basketball Coach, while winning four consecutive Section 1 AA Championships from 2004-2008.
Sue’s husband Bob Adams is a full-time Attorney and NCAA Division 1 Basketball Referee, who was a point guard for Colgate University, before graduating in 1976. Adams is also a staunch advocate for Defibrillators to be placed in every public place. He even testified in front of Congress concerning the issue.
Their daughter Kim had a stellar basketball career at White Plains High School, while winning three Gold Balls under the tutelage of her mother as Head Coach, before graduating from University of Pennsylvania. The Adams oldest son Ryan, played freshman, junior varsity and varsity basketball at WPHS, before playing for Ursinus College. He is presently Assistant Manager Retail Marketing for New Era.
However, there remains one immediate member of the Adams family tree that has gone unmentioned. When I initially met the Adams’s youngest child, son Kyle, he was sitting at the scorers table in the WPHS gym in 2004, keeping score for his mother, as she led the Tigers Girls Basketball Team.
Kyle Adams at that time was no more that eight years old and about four feet and six inches tall. I asked his mother Sue, who was keeping score and she pointed to Kyle. I thought, this is going to be a world of trouble covering this game, until I asked Kyle at halftime, who the high-scorers were in the game. He started to elucidate the statistics in a manner that amazed me.
Adams literally grew into a hard working athlete at White Plains High School with his feature sports including basketball and baseball. However, during his senior year he made the decision to concentrate exclusively on baseball.
Adams by then had grown into a 6’-2” young man and was the catcher and Captain of the Tigers varsity baseball team. In 2013, during his senior year, the Tigers with such notable players as Cameron Crabbe, Chris Medeot, Kevin and Sean Nicholson, Lukas Repetti and Tommy Bertrum won the League Title.
Adams was selected to the All New York State Team in 2013 and was a three-time All League and two-time All-Section player during his career at WPHS.
Adams attended Salisbury Prep School, after graduating from WPHS. He batted .507 in 2014 for the Crimson Knight and caught the eye of Tracy Woodson, the Head Baseball Coach at the University of Richmond.
Woodson, who already had three catchers on his squad, had to find a spot for Adams whose bat was much needed in the lineup, and so he positioned him in the outfield. Adams did not let Woodson down and finished his freshman season with a .343 batting average and selected to the Atlantic 10 All-Rookie Team.
“We gave Kyle the opportunity to hit and every time we put him up there he got a big hit,” said Woodson. “After about three or four weeks we said we had to get him in the lineup somehow someway. This year we put him in leftfield and each year we will see how he fits position wise because you cannot take him out of the lineup,” said Woodson, who was a member of the 1988 Los Angeles Dodgers World Championship team.
As local fans awaited Adams return to New York with the Spiders to play A-10 Conference opponent Fordham University in the Bronx, the team did not travel to Fordham last season.
Nonetheless, on Friday, April 1, it was no April Fools joke when Adams and the Spiders ran onto Jack Coffey Field to play the Rams. It was a homecoming weekend for Adams, who saw his former coach and mentor WPHS Head Baseball Coach Marcel Galligani chaperon this year’s Tigers junior varsity and varsity baseball teams to Fordham, to watch his former star player perform on the college level.
“Kyle is part of our family. He was with us for four years and we figured we would come and show our support for him. It is not everyday we get the opportunity to watch him play,” proudly stated Galligani.
Adams’ mother and father Sue and Bob Adams also attended with his brother Ryan and former Tigers teammate Kevin Nicholson. Ryan, now working with New Era, with the help of his uncle Bill Adams, the V.P. MLB for New Era, spearheaded getting the Spiders outfitted with New Era caps.
“I spend almost every day talking with Kyle during the season and the offseason. His work ethic on and off the field is impressive. Therefore, for him to come up here and have some fans come out and support him was not only a special moment for him but for me as well,” said Kyle’s older brother Ryan.
“Definitely growing up in a family with a college sport background really contributes to how hard I work, after watching them work hard and succeed,” said Kyle. “Also growing up and playing with my teammates at White Plains High School really taught me to play the game fundamentally. Marcel taught me how to play the game the right way,” acknowledged Adams.
Adams and the Spiders (15-13) did not have such an illustrious two days on the diamond at Jack Coffey Field. The Rams won two of the three games against the Spiders and Adams went 2-for 14 at the plate with two singles and two runs scored in Game Two.
Adams came into the series against the Rams batting .389 and left the Bronx batting .356, which is still impressive, especially for a college sophomore. But the one thing that Adams will never forget about his first trip as a college player back to play in New York was the reception he received from family and friends.
