Kyle Wooden ’11 was twice named a first-team all-Old Dominion Athletic Conference baseball player and, in 2011, was the conference’s player of the year. His .436 career batting average and .699 slugging percentage are still the best by any Quaker.

Those gaudy numbers and so many others earned Kyle a place on Dana Auditorium’s stage on Saturday, Nov. 4 with five other former Quaker student-athletes who will be enshrined in the College’s Athletics Hall of Fame.

But ask Kyle about those stats and the games that produced them and he draws a blank. “It sounds funny but I don't really even remember too many specific games,” says Kyle, Guilford’s Associate VP of Enrollment Management. “That’s not really what sticks with me. A lot of what I remember are the bus rides home after games and stopping at random restaurants to have meals together.”

Kyle, one of Guilford’s best baseball players ever, could easily have never played baseball at Guilford – or any other school for that matter. Growing up in Indiana, a state obsessed with another sport, he played more basketball than baseball.

It wasn’t until his senior year in high school that he focused on baseball. His father took him to a couple of showcase camps for baseball, which is where Guilford baseball coach Nick Black ’02 noticed him. “Coach Black was really a critical piece of my success,” says Kyle. “He was very patient with me.”

Kyle played sparingly as a first year. Today, many student-athletes who sit out their first year might take advantage of the transfer portal and go somewhere else. Kyle says he never thought that way.

“Guilford was just a hard place to leave,” he says. “I knew I was being brought along slowly by the coaching staff here and the faculty and staff members really took care of me. I felt at home here. It was a special place and still is.”

The Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony, which is open to the public, begins at 11 a.m. in Dana Auditorium on campus. In addition to Kyle the College will induct:

• Steve Hankins '75, a member of the 1973 NAIA Men's Basketball Championship squad, who had a successful coaching career at the high school level, including in Guilford County, for more than 20 years.
• Jennifer Pue-Gilchrist '03, a three-time all-ODAC volleyball player and the conference’s player of the year in 2002.
• Jennifer King '06, a member of the women's basketball and softball teams, who coached college basketball, and is now an assistant position coach with the Washington Commanders.
• Josh Vogelbach '09, a three-time All-ODAC performer and one of the most prolific quarterbacks in NCAA Division III history who ranks fifth in yards per game passing and second in career passing yards.
• Noah Ratner '13, a three-time All-American and ODAC Golfer of the Year who won the Jack Nicklaus award in 2012 as the top golfer in NCAA Division III.