Rhp Bryant Makes Career U-turn After Mets Come Calling

KINGSPORT — Garrison Bryant and his family moved from New Hampshire to Florida so the youth could pursue a college football scholarship. After a plethora of camps, campus visits and in-home visits from interested parties, the 6-foot-3, 190-pound pro-style quarterback signed with New Mexico Military Institute and was seemingly bound for the Land of Enchantment the first of June. “A lot of schools in Florida were talking to me, but after a lot of traveling and touring, I found a pretty good quarterback situation there with a good opportunity,” Bryant said. But a New York Mets scout happened upon his next-to-last game at Clearwater High School and took an immediate interest in the right-handed pitcher. “Three weeks before I was supposed to report to New Mexico, the Mets’ scout pretty much said they were going to draft me,” Bryant said. As a contingent, the scout also got the attention of North Florida, which quickly offered Bryant a baseball scholarship should nothing come to fruition in the draft. “I ended up telling New Mexico I wasn’t coming and committed to UNF for baseball,” Bryant said, “but I knew and UNF knew I wasn’t coming there either.