Victor Veyan (W.T. Woodson High School, Fairfax, VA) will study Accounting at Manor College.

The phone call hit Victor Veyan square in the chest like Bryce Harper barreling up a home run to right field. It was his high school baseball coach. After years of playing the game as a kid, Veyan didn’t make the freshman team. 

“It was such a rejection that I almost called it quits,” Veyan said. “I’d never dealt with anything like that in my life to that point. The rejection just stuck with me.” 

Veyan told his stepmother, Shelene Veyan, about being cut. Shelene, a competitive swimmer in Arizona, began telling Veyan about how she wanted to make a great club swimming team as a teenager, but didn’t make it. She didn’t let the rejection stop her. Shelene began training during morning practices and found time to do extra work on her own. 

“If you want to get something done,” she told Veyan, “you have to put in the work.” 

So Veyan did. He found a recreational team to play for that Spring, and put in time in the gym and in the batting cages to improve his game. The next year, he made W.T. Woodson High School’s baseball team the next year. 

“That experience changed my mindset a ton,” Veyan said. “If I fail at something, I can’t pout and say it’s unfair. As humans, we tend to think we can do everything, but when we fail, we just give up. I don’t want to let myself down by doing that.” 

Veyan begins his freshman year at Manor College in September, where he’ll study Accounting and play for the Blue Jays baseball team in the Spring. 

From Fairfax, Virginia, he’s among the Blue Jays traveling the farthest from their homes to attend college at Manor. Veyan has only been to Philadelphia once, driving through on the way to Manor’s Open House in November. 

“Honestly, one of the easiest answers is to go to a Phillies game,” Veyan said of what he wants to do in Philadelphia. “I just want to explore the city overall, check out the monuments and the city as a whole.” 

Coming to Manor, Veyan wants people to know that baseball isn’t his entire life. He’s not an intense person, especially outside of sports, and likes to be outgoing. Veyan loves playing cards – which he learned from his grandfather – and can be caught playing a game of Madden or MarioKart in his free time. 

What he’s most excited for is the chance to bring his own love of baseball to Manor.

“I want to bring that love of baseball that I’ve experienced and to give that feeling to others,” Veyan said.