In the Dugout: Dale Carey

Nov. 29, 2011

Coral Gables, Fla. – They are stories of perseverance. Stories about growing up, becoming men and being a part of a family. One-by-one, we hear from them. These are the Miami Hurricanes…

Dale Carey | Outfielder | Sophomore | Marietta, Ga.

The Miami tradition brought me here. I talked to the coaching staff a lot while they were recruiting me over the summer and throughout my draft process. The coaches here told me they would take care of me and this team is a family. I love Miami and I have a lot of family here. Miami Baseball is all about passion. You can see [assistant coach] Gino DiMare, Coach Morris, our entire coaching staff are the definition of Miami Baseball. They’re all passionate and they just want to win.

My uncle had a lot of influence over me coming here. He is s huge Miami fan. My Uncle Kenneth lives in Georgia, but he has Miami gear in his garage – uniforms and throwbacks. He has more Miami stuff than I’ve ever seen before.

During my free time I like to play video games and watch movies, especially horror movies. I play Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 a lot. I’m a big Xbox fan. My favorite movies are probably Paranormal Activity 3, The Exorcism of Emily Rose and Amityville Horror. A few old ones are It and Dog Soldiers.

To keep focused at the plate, I zone in and tell myself “it’s me versus the pitcher” and I have to win every time. If there are runners on base, then I tell myself “I have to get them over and get them in as best that I can.”

The great thing about playing Outfield at the “U” is you’re the last line of defense, nothing can get behind you or everybody will be in a lot of trouble. It’s fun to make those spectacular plays and diving catches. Infielders make diving catches, but in the outfield you run and layout and personally, to me, it looks a lot better.

My strangest superstition is I jump the line when I’m coming into the game and I always wear two compression shorts. I’ve been doing it since high school. I don’t know why I do it, but I’ve been doing it for so long that I’m used to it. So, now it’s a superstition.

People may not know that I can bend my ears. I have flexibility in my ears that make them stick. It’s sort of weird, but it’s cool too.

I grew up a little bit of a Hurricanes fan, but since I grew up in Georgia, all I saw was Georgia Tech and the Dogs [Georgia]. I knew my family from Florida was all huge Miami fans.

When I was first recruited by Miami, I couldn’t believe it. I remember playing the old MVP Baseball game and I played with the Canes a lot. As a kid, you never expect to get offers from colleges. You never know where you’re going to go in life. When I got that offer, it was like “Wow, I used to play with them on video games and now I actually get to go there.”

It’s crazy because this past summer I was voted as a Top 10 prospect for my league. It felt great because I had a great supporting staff through my coaches and the owner of the team. When I went down there, they also took care of me. It was a great honor to be selected as one of the Top 10 prospects.

When people think about Miami baseball, they should think about the Tradition, Brotherhood, Hard Work and Gutsy Players that will lay everything on the line game-by-game and always give 100 percent.

Loyalty. You have to be loyal and trustworthy to your team. You have to trust in each other and believe in each other. My family taught me at a young age that you have to be loyal. If you start with them, you have to end with them.

In high school I also played football. I was the starting wide receiver and safety. I had a few offers for scholarships to some schools as well.

When I made Team USA my senior year, it was during football season. So, I had to make the decision of leaving for two weeks or staying and playing football. I had offers for football, but I wouldn’t be going as far with that as I am with baseball. I sat down with my mom and dad and talked it over. We looked at the pros and cons, and with football it only takes one injury and it could leave you out for the season. I had offers from Vanderbilt, South Alabama and Temple.This offseason, I went to Luray, Va. and played summer ball where I worked on drag and push bunting. I also went home to Georgia and worked on my speed and base stealing.

My goal for this season is to help the team out in any way possible; basically do anything that I can to help us win.

After this season I want to say that we won Omaha; we made it. We worked hard and pushed ourselves and we won. That’s what I really want.