Capistrano Valley (Mission Viejo, Calif.) senior left-handed pitcher Tyler Matzek is the nation's No. 1 baseball prospect in the ESPNU player rankings. He signed with Oregon, but he's also a potential first-round pick in June's MLB Draft.
ESPN RISE: What would be the dream scenario for your future?
Matzek: One day pitching in the major leagues and having a successful career and hopefully winning a World Series championship. That would be awesome. That's the ultimate goal.
ESPN RISE: Realistically, where do you see yourself in five to 10 years?
Matzek: I'm not trying to be cocky or anything, but I think if I work hard I can get to the major leagues someday.
ESPN RISE: If for some reason your sport doesn't pan out, what do you want to do with your future?
Matzek: I wanted to be a doctor if I didn't play baseball, but getting your medical degree is a little difficult while playing a college sport. If something happens where I do go to college and I blow my arm out, I'll have a business degree. I just want to be successful.
ESPN RISE: Put yourself in charge of the high school sports world. What do you think needs to change the most?
Matzek: It's hard when people rank teams and a lot of the time they are wrong. You can't really get a good grasp on how good a team is. A team could be 13-0, but you have to consider the competition. I've seen really good teams not even ranked. Maybe have a national tournament, but I know that would be tough because of funds. Have the best teams from each state face each other. They do it for Little League, so why not high school? Make baseball more national, not local. You never know who the best team in the nation is. You never see the No. 1 play the No. 2 in baseball.
ESPN RISE: What do you think is the biggest challenge facing high school sports?
Matzek: I think baseball is expanding a lot more than it has. Baseball is getting so big that it's going to be harder to find the talent because there is going to be more people playing, especially at the younger levels.
ESPN RISE: How do you think high school sports will be different for the next generation of stars?
Matzek: I think the talent is slowly going to get better than it has before. Those kids are going to have to get better to stay above the crowd or with the crowd. You're going to see kids work a lot harder on specifics, kids working on their swings more. Kids are going to start working on the fundamentals at a younger age. It's going to make baseball at a younger level a lot better.
ESPN RISE: In what ways do you think these tough economic times will impact the future of high school sports?
Matzek: I don't think the economy is going to affect high school sports. It might a little, but I don't see it that much. What I could see is that it's going to be harder for people to pay to play on their high school teams. I've heard of kids not being able to play on their teams because of the price. It's sad to see and it's sad to hear about, but that's how it is. I could see more of that in the future.
ESPN RISE: What is one change you'd like to see made to recruiting?
Matzek: Not so many forms. They have so many forms and I had to spend so many hours and it's all the same information. What I was thinking is, what if each person created their own Internet site where all that information was available for recruiters.
That would be the easiest way to get the information. I spent many weekends on the forms. It was close to 30-40 hours filling them out. You get 30 from major league teams and forms from different colleges as well. Also, you have in-house meetings with scouts and those take a long time. They come in and talk to you and you do that close to 30 times.
ESPN RISE: How will technology impact high school sports and recruiting?
Matzek: Technology is going to make it easier to find players. I guess you could say it could be a problem because you could get too many people out there who aren't quality. There are a couple of pay sites out there, and there are guys who won't be able to get their name out there because they can't pay for that even though they are a better player.
ESPN RISE: What's going to become the biggest trend in high school sports during the next decade?
Matzek: You're going to see more high school teams moving toward a more professional approach. A lot of teams are trying to get their names off hitting instead of manufacturing runs. Teams are becoming more individual, not so team-oriented.
ESPN RISE: Is there any lesson you learned during high school that will help you in your future?
Matzek: The biggest thing I've taken away from high school baseball is a phrase from my head coach, Bob Zamora. He says, "Try easy." You basically have a laid back, casual approach. If it's supposed to happen, it will happen. It's just like a calming approach to any situation. You don't want to start thinking about it too much, otherwise you're going to choke.