'He's a bulldog' - Hometown baseball coach, on DeSantis

Record ID: 1726410

  • Title: 'He's a bulldog' - Hometown baseball coach, on DeSantis
  • Date: 24th May 2023
  • Summary: SOUNDBITE (English) HEAD COACH FOR DUNEDIN HIGH SCHOOL AND DESANTIS'S COACH, GREG NICHOLS, SAYING: "So I coached for 27 years at Dunedin and we had some very wonderful teams. A lot of ballplayers went on to college baseball. A lot of them went on to pro baseball. And so I was, I was very proud of the classes that we had come through Dunedin. Dunedin was, is a baseball community all the way from little league up through high school, and D was the last of the group that I coached."
  • Embargoed: 7th June 2023 17:17
  • Keywords: 1995 ARCHIVAL DESANTIS DUNEDIN FEATURE HEAD COACH RON DESANTIS STORY
  • Location: DUNEDIN, FLORIDA, UNITED STATES
  • City: DUNEDIN, FLORIDA, UNITED STATES
  • Country: US
  • Topics: North America,Government/Politics
  • Reuters ID: LVA004486124052023RP1
  • Aspect Ratio: 16:9
  • Story Text: Florida Governor Ron DeSantis is expected to make his long-awaited foray into the 2024 presidential race on Wednesday. His entry changes the shape of the contest for the Republican nomination, as he likely will emerge as former President Donald Trump’s biggest rival.
    But as a young man growing up in Florida, DeSantis’ life was consumed by baseball. His boyhood team in Dunedin, a suburb of Tampa, reached the Little League World Series in 1991. He pitched and played third base. In one game during the series, he hit a homer and struck out 11 batters.
    His old baseball coach, Greg Nichols, remembers him fondly.
    "So Ron DeSantis was a, was in elementary school when I met him and he went to the same school my daughters did, and he was nicknamed 'D' by his friends, I guess, and it just stuck. So he was always D DeSantis when he was in and he was in high school. He played baseball for me for four years and was a starter for three years. He was very driven as, as he is now, but he was very driven then," said Nichols.
    But is he driven enough to make it to the Oval Office?
    DeSantis gained national attention by opposing many of the policies advocated by the U.S. government to prevent the spread of COVID-19. He resisted mask and vaccine mandates and was determined to keep Florida businesses and tourism destinations open during the bulk of the pandemic.
    "I'd wish him all the best. He certainly would do his best to provide for all the people in the country like he has in the state of Florida. I'm very proud of what he's done. And I think he's a, he's a driven man. He knows what he wants and he goes for it," said Nichols.
    DeSantis’ central argument for his candidacy likely will be that he is the only Republican who can defeat Biden, the winner over Trump in the 2020 election.
    "I think he can do whatever he wants to do, said Nichols. He's determined. He's a bulldog. And if he wants to be president and I don't see anything holding him back."
    DeSantis and his advisers were determined to wait to enter the race until the Florida Legislature could hand him a series of policy victories – and lawmakers have done just that.
    He signed measures that severely restricted abortions in the state, made it easier for residents to carry concealed weapons, expanded a voucher program to allow students to attend private schools, and eliminated funding for diversity programs at public universities, among other things.
    (Production: Maria Alejandra Cardona, Joan Soley)
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