Living on the Edge: Son of famed Florida kicker leaves Gators for baseball revival at UNF

Edge made the difficult choice to leave Florida, where his father had been an All-SEC punter, to transfer to North Florida

When Brock Edge became old enough to walk — and run, throw and kick just about anything in his path — his father had one rule.

“He was going to play everything he could,” said Shayne Edge, a two-time All-SEC punter and member of Steve Spurrier’s first three SEC championship teams at the University of Florida. “We wanted him to try as many sports as he could, give it 100 percent with each one, then make his own decision down the road.”

Young Brock didn’t need any prodding as he was growing up in Lake City. He began playing competitive soccer at the age of 3. His father had to sign a waiver for him to play T-ball at the age of 4 (the minimum age was 5), where Brock became a left-handed third baseman. And he was a pee-wee league quarterback at the age of 10, with his father as the quarterback coach, and was throwing the ball all over the field while other quarterbacks were trying to master taking the snap and handing the ball off.

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“Dad would come up to me and say, ‘soccer tryouts are this weekend … we’re going to sign you up,’ and I’d say, ‘okay,’” Edge said. “Then in the spring it would be baseball, and I’d get excited about that. I played everything growing up. And if nothing was going on, we’d be playing something in the backyard.”

Brock Edge eventually became an all-state and All-First Coast player in soccer and baseball, and settled on baseball after wrecking his knee in a Columbia High School soccer match.

But he said his father didn’t push one sport or the other. Shayne Edge only required that his son complete a season.

“Finish what I started,” he said. “There was never any thought to quitting during a season.”

University of North Florida baseball coach Tim Parenton said it’s pretty easy to see the influence Edge’s idyllic childhood in sports and his father’s approach have had on one of the most versatile players in the ASUN this season.

“He’s a competitor … plays hard, can do a lot of different things, moves around, can play any position in the outfield,” Parenton said of the graduate senior who transferred to UNF from the University of Florida last fall. “And bottom line, he’s a good person. We want good people on our team.”

UNF has a one-and-done wonder for second straight season in Brock Edge

And for the second season in a row Parenton, who admits he’s not a fan of the NCAA transfer portal, has hit upon a one-and-done gem in Edge, who got his degree at Florida before coming to UNF to get his master’s in business analytics.

Last year it was catcher Alex Kachler who led UNF in hitting at .356, while adding eight homers and 38 RBI on his way to earning ASUN player of the year honors.

Through Tuesday’s victory over The Citadel, Edge leads the Ospreys (16-22) in slugging (.520), on-base percentage (.405), doubles (14), triples (three) and walks (16) and is second in runs (31) and homers (three), tied for third in RB (21) and fourth in batting average (.324).

Edge has yet to make an error in the outfield and has thrown out three runners on the basepaths.