Each month, iParenting.com spotlights a teen who inspires and moves us, who embodies the qualities that we all admire in a person, a friend, and a son or a daughter. Above all, the Teen of the Month is dedicated to making a positive mark on the planet. Rich or poor, famous or not, the Teen of the Month shines as an example of what today's teens have to offer.

Octobers's Teen of the Month is Neil Walker, baseball player for the Pittsburgh Pirates.

Almost every little boy dreams of growing up to be a big-league baseball player. Neil Walker of Gibsonia, Pa., isn’t dreaming anymore. Walker, 19, was picked 11th overall in the amateur draft as the Pittsburgh Pirates' first-round choice. In a venue heavily weighted with 20-somethings who have already played college baseball for several years, it’s unusual for a recent high school graduate to be taken at all – much less in the first round.

For Walker, the thrill was magnified by being chosen by his hometown team. “I grew up cheering on the Pirates,” he says. “This is a dream come true for me.”

In the Genes
Walker is living proof that the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree. His father, Tom Walker, and uncle, Chip Lang, both played in the major leagues. “Growing up I thought it was just perfectly normal for baseball to be such a big part of family life,” Walker says. “It was something that was always around.”

Walker’s older siblings were also an inspiration. Both of his older brothers, Sean and Matt, played baseball in college. Matt was drafted by the Detroit Tigers in 2000 in the 37th round – an impressive feat when you consider the odds of even being talented enough to get near the draft. Matt now plays for the Baltimore Orioles' AA minor-league team. Better yet, it's not just the boys who have the athletic "it factor." Walker's sister, Carrie, 21, recently signed a professional basketball contract with Killarney of the Women's Irish Super League.

Daring to Dream
Walker started his athletic career as most kids do, in his local community leagues. He was a natural athlete and loved playing football, basketball and hockey for fun, but says that baseball seemed to be imbedded in his psyche in a way that the other sports never were. He played shortstop until he was in middle school when, probably for the first time in his life, he was put on a team with another boy who was his athletic equal.

“I think I always played shortstop simply because that seems to be where the more athletic people are placed,” Walker says. “Then, in 8th grade, I ended up on a team with Dale Mollenhauer, who was a better shortstop. The coaches were trying to figure out where in the heck to put me and settled on moving me to catcher.”

At first, Walker wasn’t thrilled about his new role. Eventually, he not only got used to it, he began to understand the importance of the catcher in a way he hadn’t before, and he started working hard to excel at the position. His dedication led him to become one of the top young catchers in the nation, and Mollenhauer (who was drafted in the 24th round) became one of his closest friends.

While Walker was always a standout athlete on the local level, it never occurred to him that he had a realistic shot of making it at the professional level until the summer between his junior and senior years in high school. That June, he tried out for the U.S. Junior National Team, and he made it. It was a defining moment for Walker.

“That was the first time that I’d ever played with kids outside my own region, and I didn’t really know how I’d fare against them,” he says. “When I made the team, it was the first time that I realized that I was a good baseball player – not just for Western Pennsylvania – but that I could hold my own with players from around the country. That’s when I seriously began to hope that maybe becoming a professional baseball player might be a real possibility.”

Walker wasn’t the only one recognizing his potential. The buzz was already growing in the local media, and rarely a week went by when he wasn’t mentioned on the sports pages of his local papers. Not really knowing what the future was going to bring, Walker accepted a baseball scholarship to Clemson University in September 2003, secretly hoping that they would allow him on the football field, as well. He then turned his attention to his last year of high school football and helped his team to their first WPIAL championships.

Exhausted from a tough football season, Walker came out of it realizing that his baseball stock was going up. One scouting service had ranked him the No. 1 catcher in the country, and there was more and more talk of him being a possible first- or second-round selection draft selection.

Rather than leave it to chance, Walker opted out of a fourth year playing basketball and decided to spend the winter on his hitting and getting in shape for the upcoming baseball season. Working around his school schedule, Walker spent hours on his hitting, often using a portion of the high school gym or working at a local training center.

The rest, as they say, is history. Walker went on to finish his senior baseball season with a .657 batting average, including 13 home runs and 42 RBIs. Under his leadership, his high school team won its first baseball championship. He did all this under the stress of being constantly watched by the major-league baseball scouts that haunted his footsteps and filled the stands at his games during his final season. They obviously liked what they saw, and in June 2004 Walker signed a contract with the Pittsburgh Pirates that netted him a signing bonus worth $1.95 million.

A Pirate’s Life for Neil
It wasn’t exactly a letdown for Walker when he left the celebrity of his local community for the Gulf Coast League, his first stop on a road to the majors that is still long and uncertain, but he did go through the same culture shock every teenager goes through when they first leave home. The difference is that instead of going to college he went to baseball camp. On the plus side, he’s made a lot of new friends, and he gets to be just “one of the guys” instead of everybody’s golden boy. On the other hand, he misses his family and his old friends, and he’s had to learn to do his own laundry.

Signing bonus of $2 million aside, rookie baseball is no bed of roses, but Walker’s not complaining. “Playing ball this summer was definitely harder than high school, but it was a lot of fun to be around guys who were in the same situation that I was,” Walker says. “It was very competitive, and I learned a lot about baseball – and life.”

In spite of his almost assured success in baseball, Walker’s one regret is that he didn’t play college football, a sport he loves almost as much as baseball. “It was particularly hard because most of my friends are going on to play in college, and I really miss it,” he says.

It helps that he’s assisting his old high school team this fall while on a brief hiatus from workouts and practice. He’s also not ruling out football altogether, nor is he done with his formal education. Part of his deal with the Pirates included $100,000 for college. Without going into specifics, he says there is still a possibility that he can play football in college. It could be just a dream, but so was baseball once – and look where that got him.

Want to see more?

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• Encouraging Community Service: A Lesson in Perspective and Personal Discovery
• Read About Other Teens of the Month Here!
• Talk about it!