Pita Rona is like a number of other 17-year-olds in his native New Zealand. The teenager loves sports, he has been an active student at a prestigious school (Glenfield College) and has big dreams about his future. Then, last week Rona did something very few teenage Kiwis had ever done before: He signed a contract with a Major League Baseball organization.
That's right, a 17-year-old New Zealander is now a member of a Major League Baseball organization. Rona inked a seven-year developmental deal with the Baltimore Orioles on Thursday, becoming just the fifth New Zealander ever to sign with a professional baseball team. As it turns out, Rona may be part of a larger developmental trend in Oceania, becoming the second New Zealand-based teenager to sign a MLB Developmental contract in the past year; the Red Sox signed catcher Te Wera Bishop, Rona's first cousin, to a developmental deal in April 2011.
"I'm really grateful for this opportunity," Rona told New Zealand news magazine Stuff. "It can financially set me and my family up for life. I'm actually looking forward to doing all the hard work and trying to improve myself to try and get higher and higher as the years go by."
To be clear, Rona is still a long way from the Inner Harbor. The teenager will report to Major League Baseball's Australian academy on the country's Gold Coast in the coming months, and if he develops on schedule, he could be at Orioles spring training in Florida come spring 2013.
Still, to say that this deal came out of the blue is an understatement for a player who had never even played competitive baseball until 12 months ago. Rona grew up as a fastpitch softball player in the youth program of the country's national team, colloquially called the Black Sox.
In fact, Rona's temporary switch to baseball precipitated his departure from his first love of softball, with he, his father Brad Rona and fellow Black Sox outfielder Ben Enoka blacklisted from the national team roster because they were playing for club baseball teams.
Indeed, instead of a brief baseball diversion, that initial experimental trial with an Auckland club team led to Rona's inclusion in the under-18 national baseball team that is preparing for the 2012 Oceania tournament in Guam, and that he was seen by Orioles scouts while preparing for that event, Rona may have earned the last laugh on those who pushed him out of softball for trying a new sport.
"He has a very quick bat, a very quick swing and the ball jumps," Orioles scout David Stockstill, who was instrumental in signing the teenager, told Stuff. "There will need to be some adjustments to add a little more length, because you have more time with the baseball.
"We see an athlete who will be able to make the transition fairly rapidly and fairly successfully."
Want more on the best stories in high school sports? Visit RivalsHigh or connect with Prep Rally on Facebook and follow us on Twitter.