Former Kennett BB star transforms self physically, academically at Three Rivers

There is an adage about first-year college students putting on the “freshman 15” when they venture away from home for the first time.

Former Kennett High School standout athlete Tanner Duncan took that saying up a notch during his first year playing baseball at Three Rivers Community College.

Duncan hit the cafeteria AND the Raiders’ weight room and bulked up to 215 pounds, which was 25 pounds heavier when he was representing the Indians a year earlier.

“It was a whole bunch of eating,” Duncan said of his physical transformation. “And a lot of weightlifting.”

Duncan admitted that “not all of it was great weight at first,” but it was eventually.

“I wanted to gain about 20 pounds,” Duncan said. “I started working out a lot more and put on the weight.

“I needed to get stronger.”

The work paid off – eventually.

The Raiders played two months of games in the fall and Duncan only participated in one of those.

In the initial 14 games of the 2023 spring schedule, he only saw action four times. However, he played in 37 of the Raiders’ final 40 games this spring, mostly at first base.

“The stronger you are,” Duncan explained, “and the bigger you are, the more power you can generate. The weight kind of slowed me down a little bit in my running, but (the coaches) want me to hit doubles, not beat out bunts.”

Duncan, who tore his ACL in his knee as a senior football player at Kennett, and only played on about “70 percent of his knee,” according to Indian coach Aaron New said of last spring, was recovered completely this season.

He hit nine doubles, which ranked second on Three Rivers, and had 37 hits in his 41 games.

He totaled 28 RBI and 12 walks while hitting (.301 average), getting on base (.389), and slugging (.439).

“It is a grind,” Duncan said of playing junior college baseball. “It is a lot of hard work. You play a lot of games.”

In the nine-month academic year, the Raiders played games in six of those.

“You are playing a lot,” Duncan said. “You get really close with your teammates because you spend so much time with them.

“It’s a lot different than high school. It’s a lot different.”

The talent level is “different,” which was an adjustment for Duncan, as it is with all first-year athletes.

“It was tough,” Duncan said. “In the fall, I struggled. In high school, every other game, or maybe every two or three games, you’ll see a stud who throws really good.”

As it turns out, that is the case in every inning at the college level.

“It’s every day,” Duncan said. “Every team has those guys.”

One goal that Duncan didn’t meet this past season was that he wants to pitch at the collegiate level, and he didn’t get to do that as a freshman.

He is hoping to work on that in a college-level league this summer in Memphis, and he also hopes that the added strength can boost his fastball to 90 m.p.h.-plus by the time he returns to Poplar Bluff.

“I lift every day,” Duncan said of a 6-day per week routine, “and stay at it with hitting and throwing. My goal is to get my legs stronger (which will help his pitching) and hit a lot more home runs.”

He connected for two of those this spring.

Academically, he “made the honor roll for the first time ever,” Duncan gushed.

He has plans on studying education and one day following in New’s footsteps and being an educator and coach.

“Tanner is a hard worker,” New said. “He’s extremely talented and he is athletic. He is just a great worker and a great hitter. He has a good eye at the plate and can handle left-handers and right-handers.

“That bat is always going to play.”