$32,000 in scholarships to be awarded at baseball tourney honoring a former TCU signee

Drew Medford was an elite pitcher at Fort Worth Paschal and had a promising career after high school when he signed to play baseball at TCU. He graduated from Paschal in 2016 and began workouts with the Horned Frogs that summer.

But on August 18, 2016, Medford died in a one-vehicle wreck on the Chisholm Trail Parkway.

Medford was taken way too soon just a few months after earning all-state and District MVP honors his senior season. The night of the accident, Paschal held a vigil and celebrated his life.

The following year, the Drew Medford Memorial Tournament (DMMT) was formed by his sister, Adrienne Grant and a team of individuals that serve on the tournament board (Sarah Meek, Stacey Henley, Jim Floyd, Barney Wiley, Randy and Kimberly Ferguson, Julia Medford, Bart Shaw, Aimee Plummer and Ken Schaefer).

Played every spring during the baseball season, a scholarship is awarded to one player on each team participating in the tournament. The player may not be the best player on the team, but the player must embody the characteristics of Drew: a drive to succeed, humility and empathy for others, and a leader on his baseball team.

“My parents drove all over the state for my brothers to play baseball. A lot of sacrifices were made financially,” said Grant in a press release. “Our goal is to establish a tournament where great baseball is played and local athletes can be showcased.”

To date, more than $44,000 in scholarships have been awarded through the DMMT, and $32,000 will be awarded at the 2019 tournament. Scholarships will be presented at 6:30 p.m. on Saturday at the Paschal baseball fields, right before the final game of the tournament is played by Paschal and Arlington Heights.

This year’s tournament will run Thursday through Saturday. Tournament host sites are Paschal, Arlington Heights, Mansfield Summit and Mansfield Legacy high schools. In addition to the host schools, the participants include FW Trinity Valley, FW Country Day, Mansfield Timberview, Temple, Duncanville, Lake Ridge, Fossil Ridge, Mansfield, Arlington Martin, LD Bell, Weatherford, and Ennis.

Those interested in sponsoring the DMMT can visit https://www.dmed12.org/donate, or contact Adrienne Grant at Sponsorship@dmed12.org.

SCHEDULE

This story was originally published March 6, 2019 at 10:01 AM.

Brian Gosset

Fort Worth Star-Telegram

808-218-5424

Brian Gosset covered high school sports for the Fort Worth Star-Telegram until 2023. He graduated from Northern Arizona University with a degree in journalism before coming to Texas in 2014.