Indiana University of Pennsylvania Athletics

To attract the attention of professional baseball scouts while playing at a Division II school takes a special type of player. Bruce Yard certainly fit that bill.

Yard came to IUP from nearby Apollo-Ridge High School and made an immediate impact on the Indian baseball program, earning PSAC West Rookie of the Year honors in 1991. That was just the start of a career that saw him finish with a batting average of .342, the 10th-highest figure in school history.

He balled .409 the following year and was the toughest player to strike out in the nation. He was named the All -PSAC West shortstop that season and selected to several preseason All-America teams prior to his junior season in 1993.

In addition to his batting average, Yard also ranks 15th in school history with 82 runs scored and 19th with 118 hits despite playing only three seasons and in an era when the baseball team played far fewer games than in more recent years. He struck out only six times in his entire college career.

Yard accomplished so much in his three years with the Indians that he was drafted by the Los Angeles Dodgers in June 1993 and spent five years in their minor league organization with a .270 batting average before retiring in 1997. He then returned to IUP to finish his degree, graduating in 1999 and earning a master's degree from the university four years later.

He assisted head coach Tom Kennedy with the IUP baseball team from 1997 to 2003 and is currently a health and physical education teacher at Freeport High School, where has coached varsity football and track and field and junior high school basketball.

Yard and his wife, Amy, are the parents of son Lucas and daughter Sophia. The family resides in Spring Church, Pa.