WELLMAN

The afternoon dismissal bells have sounded at Mid-Prairie High School and senior Tatem Telfer heads for the library.

The first thing you’ll notice is his jacket. It’s an Arkansas State University baseball warm-up jacket. There is a reason he’s wearing the colors of the Red Wolves.

Last week, his verbal commitment to Arkansas State’s baseball program turned into a formal written one. Go to the Arkansas State baseball team’s website and Telfer is the first name that pops up in a recruiting story.

A Mid-Prairie teacher walks in, spots Telfer and asks: “Where is Arkansas State?”

“Jonesboro” is the quick response.

The happiness and the anticipation speak loudly.

“They offered me the best financially,” Telfer said. “I see myself playing there day one.”

And so do the Red Wolves.

Head Coach Mike Silva, a former San Diego Padres scout who joined Arkansas State just five months ago, and his staff have pounded the recruiting path in search of talent. They’re bringing in more than 30 players. Telfer was among five signings in the past week alone. He isn’t being brought in to sit on the bench. As a freshman, he’ll be pitching. The Red Wolves are counting on it.

“We wanted to bring in guys that could make an immediate impact straight out of high school and we feel that our signees are ready to do that,” Silva said in a statement.

It’s why Telfer isn’t headed to the University of Iowa. The Hawkeyes did want him.

“I was pretty close,” Telfer said. “They offered me three times.”

Even Arkansas State had to do it twice. When Telfer first verbaled to the Red Wolves last year, there was a different coaching staff. Questions arose when Silva and the new staff were hired following a 21-32 season. It turned out to be a perfect fit.

“It was a really smooth transition,” Telfer said. “I really connected with this new coaching staff, probably better than the original one that got me to go there. He’s really good.”

But back home with the family? Well, they were pulling for the Hawkeyes. Tatem himself has always rooted for the Hawkeyes.

“It was a big decision,” he said. “My grandparents, my family, we’re die-hard Iowa Hawkeye fans.”

One of his baseball buddies, Karson Grout, a Mid-Prairie alum and former Golden Hawk baseball star, is in his freshman year now at Iowa and had a few persuasive words of his own.

And this is where you see the real Tatem Telfer. He’s a thinker. He works things out. The glitter of a Big Ten program wasn’t enough by itself. It had to be a logical plan. This is a student who lives in the small town of Hedrick, located northeast of Ottumwa, and drives 50 minutes each way to school every day just to attend Mid-Prairie. It’s by choice. He is the son of an Iowa State Trooper, Mike Telfer, who went with him to Jonesboro, Arkansas, for a college visit. He’s the son of a schoolteacher, Renee, who teaches in Pekin, and he’s the older brother of Christian, who attends Pekin Community Schools.

Tatem was a student and athlete at Cardinal High School, a rural school located southeast of Ottumwa, before he and his parents agreed on a change. He picked Mid-Prairie and transferred in during the 2023-24 school year. And not just for baseball. Although there certainly is that.

“I love it,” Telfer said of Mid-Prairie. “Academics wise, it’s challenging. But it’s very good for me. I love the people here, I love the teachers here. Athletics are awesome, obviously. Like the fall season that all of our sports had. Just incredible.”

The loyalty to his new school is tight. The night before he was to play in a fall baseball tournament in Florida with a Chicago Cubs youth scout team just a few weeks ago, he was on a Mid-Prairie football bus to Albia, a night in which he scored his first touchdown. When the Golden Hawks volleyball team defeated Wilton in a regional championship match at Mid-Prairie in late October, Telfer stood on the front row of the student section cheering his classmates on.

He played basketball last year for the Golden Hawks so that he would be eligible to play for the school’s baseball team and, as it turned out, post one of the most dominant pitching seasons in Iowa.

Football? With a full baseball scholarship riding on his health, let’s just say that parents Mike and Renee weren’t really on board with that.

“I finally convinced them to let me play football,” Telfer said. “It was a good decision … I’m not injury prone.”

And when you slice away the reasons, it probably wasn’t the football. It was his teammates. And it was the school.

“I knew we were going to be good. I loved the team,” he said. “I’m really, really close with a lot of the guys. It was 100% worth it. And I didn’t get hurt, so it was definitely worth it .. now. And my parents were glad that I played … now.”

Basketball won’t happen over the winter because it’s back to baseball. His pitching speed is up to 91 miles per hour with the goal of hitting 94. He works out regularly with Steve James, a well-known coach in Cedar Rapids. And next year, he’s eligible to be drafted by a Major League Baseball team for the first time. Even so, Arkansas State is what’s next.

“I was told if I threw 94,” Telfer said, “I would be an extremely high chance of getting drafted.”

At 91 mph, there were few high school hitters who could touch him. In seven pitching starts, only two players all summer actually got a hit off him. His opponents’ batting average was a crazy .024. No other pitcher in any Iowa high school class matched that.

No wonder Iowa Hawkeye baseball was chasing him.

Telfer struck out 70 in 28.2 innings, but also gave up 41 walks in those innings. Basically, you’re either striking out or walking because the ball was blasting past you in a blur. The control problem? That’ll be fixed. He’ll play in a spring baseball league and has already decided he will play for the Golden Hawks next summer before heading out to Arkansas State in August.

One of the pitches he’s working on is a knuckle curve, a specialized pitch used by some pitchers in the Major Leagues. But in high school ball, most of what you’ll see is the fastball. The heat.

“Ninety-four would be awesome,” Telfer said. “It’ll get me on the field at college or it’ll get me drafted.”

A year from now, Telfer will be getting ready for another piece of his baseball journey. The Red Wolves, a member of the Sun Belt Conference, begin playing games in February. They’ll play several Southeastern Conference teams, including Arkansas. Who knows, maybe even the Hawkeyes?

Until then, Telfer is a Golden Hawk.

You’ll find him right there on the front row of the student section come basketball season, cheering on some of the same guys he’ll see in summer baseball.

News columnist Paul Bowker can be reached at bowkerpaul1@gmail.com. Follow him on Twitter: @bowkerpaul