Chaparral outfielder Dylan Cozens was selected by the Phillies with the No. 77 overall pick in the Major League Baseball draft on Tuesday.
Cozens has a scholarship offer to play football and baseball next year at Arizona, but told clubs he would sign if chosen within the first 100 picks of the draft.
Cozens said he felt a mixture of emotions when his name showed up on his computer screen, where he was following the draft.
"It was amazing," he said, "and kind of a relief."
Cozens worked out for Philadelphia and said he had a strong feeling the team would choose him.
The 6-foot-5, 230-pound defensive end had 49 tackles and eight and a half sacks on the gridiron this past year for the state champion Firebirds. It was his first year playing football, but Cozens showed enough natural ability to garner several scholarship offers, and eventually chose Arizona over Boise State and Washington.
He has always been a big-time baseball prospect, and he batted .520 with a state-best 19 home runs and 52 RBIs during the spring, hitting a walk-off home run to give Chaparral the Division I baseball title. He had an on-base percentage of .591 and a slugging percentage of 1.240.
Cozens' signing bonus will still need to be negotiated, but he knows the Phillies are serious about signing him and he's ready to give up football for a professional baseball career.
"I've always wanted to play baseball," he said.
Reach Kyle Odegard at (480) 898-6834 or kodegard@evtrib.com. Follow his blog at http://blogs.evtrib.com/varsityxtra, or find him on Twitter @Kyle_Odegard.
