Vincent senior Aiden Poe blends classroom and baseball success

Vincent High School senior Aiden Poe has long been considered one of the state’s elite high school baseball players.

He started playing shortstop on Vincent’s varsity baseball team as a seventh grader, played on elite summer league teams for years, and won the 2024 Class 2A Pitcher of the Year award as a junior.

More recently, though, Poe has found a new passion, something he sheepishly admits sounds “super nerdy.”

“I’ve really fallen in love with calculus,” he said.

That leads to the obvious follow-up questions:

How? Why?

“I’ve always been pretty good at math,” he said. “But I started taking it more seriously this year. I only have two classes this semester, so I can take it more seriously because I don’t have to worry about other classes distracting me. I started watching – it’s super nerdy, (and) it sounds terrible – math history videos to learn what calculus actually means, not just the formulas. It all falls into line and just makes sense.”

It also makes sense for Poe to be selected one of 52 regional winners in the Bryant-Jordan Scholarship Program’s Scholar-Athlete category, which honors high school athletes who excel on the field and in the classroom. Regional winners earn a $3,000 scholarship and could win more at the at the 40th annual Bryant-Jordan Awards Banquet to be held Monday night at the Sheraton Birmingham Hotel.

He was selected the Class 2A, Region 4 Scholar-Athlete recipient.

A total of 104 high school senior student-athletes – 52 in the program’s Achievement category and 52 in the Scholar-Athlete category – were selected as regional winners. More than $12 million in scholarship funds has been distributed to student recipients by the Bryant-Jordan Scholarship Program since its inception in 1986.

Aiden has mastered the ability to excel academically and athletically. He carries a 4.4 GPA while taking numerous dual enrollment and AP classes. He scored 31 on the ACT and is slated to be Vincent’s salutatorian. He’s never made less than A on his report card.

As a junior, the right-hander compiled a 12-1 pitching record and added a save while striking out 134 of 303 batters he faced. Perhaps most impressive is the fact he walked only eight batters in 79 1/3 innings. He also plays shortstop when he’s not pitching and is a standout hitter.

Aiden has applied his analytical skills – what his dad refers to as his son’s “math brain” – to improving his pitching while working with individual coach B.J. Green, a former Alabama pitcher who currently serves as the assistant head coach at UAB.

Many of the sessions with Green involved very little pitching and heavy doses of lessons on biomechanics and pitch selection.

“That made sense to his math brain,” said Nathan Poe, Aiden’s dad. “That’s when he went from a really good high school pitcher to he wrote new rulebook stuff on how few people he walks. It’s all math and science on how he throws a pitch down a tunnel. He doesn’t walk anyone.”

Added Aiden, “All of pitching is how much force can you put into the ground and bring back up to your arm. It’s like a little trampoline. So, learning physics and math … I feel like that can benefit me.”

Aiden said he has the ability to “compartmentalize” and focus on the task at hand, whether that’s using his free time to learn physics through the online Khan Academy or making time to maintain his grades while playing football and baseball throughout high school. He doesn’t drink soda or eat candy. He uses a smartwatch to track his sleep habits.

Megan Poe, Aiden’s mom, said her son has always been self-disciplined. “I remember sitting in car-rider line and he was doing homework so he could play once he got home,” she said.

Aiden’s self-discipline also explains why he’s heading to the United States Air Force Academy for his college education and to play baseball.

“I think he fits in with that mindset of excellence. He has such good time management skills,” Megan Poe said. “It’s the right fit for him to have athletics and academics – not just taking easy courses so he can be a baseball player.”

Aiden smiles when he recalls the recruiting pitch from Air Force head baseball coach Mike Kazlausky: “Do you want to come play four years of Division I baseball and then your country hands you the keys to a $600 million jet? I’m like, ‘That’s pretty cool’” the teen said.

Aiden said he’s considering studying engineering or medicine, and he plans to become a pilot.

“I think I’m going to go there and see what I’m good at,” he said. “There’s no better place where I can become my best self and my best leader and serve other people. There’s no other place in the country you can do that.”