"Scrappy" Runs in the Family

The Nittany Lions have a legacy at shortstop for the Baseball team.  Taylor Skerpon is the son of Don Skerpon, PSU pole vaulter from the late 70's and early 80's.  Taylor patterns his game after Dustin Pedroia, thus making him an old-fashioned, scrappy, do-it-right kind of player.  I would have used Pete Rose for that if I could actually play the game well enough to graduate from Little League. But my baseball game is equal to my golf game, so that was out the window.  And Pete had issues none of us knew about at the time.


Those who know Don, know the scrappy nature of his athletic prowess also. I often talk about my inability to even carry his 16 ft. pole vault pole down the runway. But  not many know that he was called on to be the fourth man on the Shuttle Hurdle Relay at the Penn Relays.  Having Paul Lankford depending on you as a teammate and competing against Renaldo Nehemiah may seem a tough thing to do, but Don did it with enough skill to even get Coach Groves to smile.