KU Scholar Athlete of the Month: Brendan Hord
Brendan: A Hard-Hitting Role Model
- School: Dunbar High
- GRADE: 12
- Sport: Baseball
- Academics: Brendan has a 4.85 weighted GPA in the Dunbar Math-Science-Technology Center. He also scored 34 on the ACT and has taken 13 A.P. classes.
- Parents: Melia & Chuck
With his Popeye forearms and bulging GPA, Brendan Hord of Dunbar High epitomizes the Scholar Athlete ideal.
The 18-year-old senior is the hard-hitting catcher/designated hitter on the baseball team and carries a 4.85 weighted GPA in the academically rigorous Math-Science-Technology Center at Dunbar.
Brendan scored 34 on his ACT, has taken 13 A.P. classes, and is a member of the National Honor Society, plus the Spanish, Science and Beta Honor Societies.
He volunteers at the Lexington Soup Kitchen and Catholic Action Center, and served as a judge at the Fayette County Public Schools science fair.
He is the senior class vice president and was the Homecoming and Prom King. And here’s what his baseball coach had to say about him.
“He’s the most well-rounded, unbelievable young man I have ever met,” Seth Knight said.
“He is the best teammate a player could hope for, and his work ethic motivates those around him.
“I simply cannot say enough about this young man. He is one of a kind and deserves every honor that could be bestowed upon him.”
Along with his leadership (Brendan is captain of the baseball team), the 5-foot-11, 210-pound slugger supplies the Bulldogs with a potent bat in the middle of the order. He is hitting .408 and his 1.237 OPS consists of a .542 on-base percentage and a .695 slugging percentage.
Brendan has been the envy of college scouts because of his baseball skills and because his academic strengths translate to big academic scholarships, and he is a strong leader on and off the field.
In the fall, he will attend the University of Kentucky in the College of Engineering with a Presidential Scholarship, which provides full tuition.He will major in engineering and premed.
At Dunbar, his capstone project, in cooperation with UK science researchers, involved the recovery time difference between patients undergoing frontal and posterior shoulder surgeries.
Always a straight-A student, Brendan mixes academic talent with a monster work ethic.
“Often, he comes home from practice and works well past midnight on his homework,” his father Chuck said.
Said his mother Melia: “He’s very disciplined, organized and a great time manager. He’s also meticulous and a perfectionist.”
Whether he brings those qualities to engineering or medicine, Brendan has one career wish.
“I’ve been playing baseball since I was 4 and it was love at first sight,” he said. “I have always pictured myself doing something in sports.”
