Five star athletes that came from smaller school in Maryland
The state of Maryland has produced a lot of star athletes, from Michael Phelps to Cal Ripken Jr. even Babe Ruth was born in Baltimore. Lets take a look at some athletes that went to the smaller schools in Maryland.
- Richie Palacios – Towson
Palacios’s MLB career has seen him go through a lot of optionings and recalls under the
Cleveland Guardians. He is currently signed by the St. Louis Cardinals, having been traded
earlier this year. He also played for the Netherlands national team during the 2023 World
Classic alongside his older brother, Josh, who plays for the Pittsburgh Pirates.
Palacios attended Towson from 2016 to 2018. He played a total of 163 games for the
Tigers and scored 154 runs in the course of those games. He started off as a second baseman
in 2016, but moved to shortstop in 2017 and 2018. Palacios didn’t register any fielding stats
while at Towson, with all of his play time coming at the plate. His current position is right-
fielder for the Cardinals, a position in which he has played two games with a fielding
percentage of 1.000. - Kacy Catanzaro – Towson
Catanzaro attended Towson University under an athletic scholarship and she was on the
women’s gymnastics team from 2009-2012. She became a Level 10 gymnast while training
during her youth in New Jersey and continued to hone her skills at Towson. She was named
ECAC Rookie of the Week in 2009 after helping the Tigers win their final home meet and was
on track to scoring 1,000 points during her senior year.
Catanzaro now performs as a professional wrestler under the WWE. After retiring from
competing in American Ninja Warrior, Catanzaro tried out for the WWE in 2017. She took some
time off in 2019, but returned in early 2020 during an episode of NXT. She now wrestles under
the name Katara Chance under Raw with her tag team partner, Kayden Carter. She has a total
record of 67-1-64 over her appearances on WWE, NXT UK, and NXT. - Justin Gorham – Towson
Gorham played as a forward for the Towson Tigers men’s basketball team during his
freshman and sophomore years of college before transferring to Houston. He played 64 total
games for the Tigers and scored an average of 6.3 points per game. During his sophomore
year, he scored an average of 9.8 points, having scored 314 in total across 32 games.
Starting his professional career with the Telekon Basket Bonn, a team part of the German
Basketball Bundesliga, Gorham now plays for the Rytas Vilnius of the Lithuanian Basketball
League. Having signed with the LBL in March 2023, Gorham scored 92 points in the 9
games that he played during the 2022-23 season. The Rytas Vilnius are two games into the
2023-24 season with a 2-0 record. Gorham played in one of those games, scoring 6 points. - Seventh Woods – Morgan State
Woods’ college basketball career had him playing for the Universities of North Carolina
and South Carolina before finishing out at Morgan State. He played 22 games for the Bears
as a grad student, starting in 18 of them. Woods scored an average of 4.7 points per game.
In July 2023, Woods was signed by the UCC Demons, an Irish basketball team that plays
in the Super League. The Demons play out of Cork and have had a rough history. Originally
called the Blue Demons, a rough patch in the early 1990s saw them take a five-year hiatus
before returning to the National League in 1998. After joining hands with the University
College Cork, the Blue Demons became the UCC Demons and managed to get promoted into
the Super League in 2021.
The new season has yet to start, but Woods appears to have made a good decision in
signing with the Demons. Last year, they finished second in the South Conference with 42
points and made it to the semi-finals. Hopefully players like Seventh Woods will help the
Demons maintain their place in the Super League in the years to come. - Santi Aldama – Loyola
Currently playing as a power forward for the Memphis Grizzlies, Spanish basketball
player, Santi Aldama’s college career saw him playing for Loyola University. This was a
move that surprised many people, as Aldama was highly sought after in his home country of
Spain during his youth. Even then, he chose to play for the academies that he felt comfortable
with, rather than going with the big names that everyone knows.
Aldama played for Loyola in the 2019-20 and 2020-21 seasons. He scored an average of
19 points per game over the 27 games he played for the Greyhounds. He entered the NBA
draft after his sophomore year and was drafted by the Utah Jazz. Aldama was later signed by
the Grizzlies in August 2021 after they bought his rights from the Jazz. He’s played 109
games for Memphis and averaged 7.9 points per game.
Aldama has also made appearances for the Spainish national team in FIBA U16 and U18
Europeans Championships. The Spanish U18 team won gold in 2019 and Aldama was named
MVP.
https://www.baseball-reference.com/register/player.fcgi?id=palaci000ric
https://www.sports-reference.com/cbb/players/seventh-woods-1.html
https://towsontigers.com/sports/womens-gymnastics/roster/kacy-catanzaro/236
http://www.profightdb.com/winlossrecord/kacy-catanzaro-14221.html
https://www.sports-reference.com/cbb/players/justin-gorham-1.html
https://www.proballers.com/basketball/player/188714/justin-gorham/totals
https://www.basketball-reference.com/players/a/aldamsa01.html
https://www.sports-reference.com/cbb/players/santi-aldama-1.html
