ANN ARBOR -- Jordan Brewer fought back tears in the locker room during a football regional championship his senior year at St. Joseph High School.
The 2016 graduate wondered what was next in his athletic career after dislocating his shoulder for a second time.
His plan of walking on to the Michigan football team for Jim Harbaugh was no longer viable, and his final high school baseball season also was in jeopardy with a six-month recovery prognosis after surgery.
Now three years later, Brewer can't help but wonder if that injury was a blessing in disguise.
The 6-foot-1, 195-pounder made a miraculous recovery to return to the baseball field in three months, earning one offer to play at Lincoln Trail Community College. In his two seasons, he impressed Michigan baseball coach Erik Bakich enough to offer him a roster spot for the 2019 season, and Brewer gladly accepted.
He has no doubts that he made the right decision. He was named the Big Ten Player of the year this season and is now playing in an NCAA Super Regional. Less than 24 hours after the Wolverines won their first regional since 2007 on Monday with a 17-6 thumping of Creighton, Brewer was selected by the Houston Astros in the third round of the MLB draft.
“Who knows what would have happened (without the injury),” Brewer told MLive on Tuesday night in a phone interview just as after the team landed in Los Angeles for a best-of-three showdown against No. 1 UCLA beginning Friday. “It has been an absolute roller coaster. I had to wait in a long line to get on this roller coaster. It has been up and down, but now I am just coasting -- hands in the air just smiling with everyone behind me.”
Brewer was not alone in the locker room after his serious shoulder injury. His personal trainer, Ryan Magley, was the first one there to console him. Magley had helped Brewer rehab before from a dislocated shoulder two years earlier.
"He really turned my life around," Brewer said. "He taught me how to grind. He would come pick me up before school at 5 a.m. and we would go work out. He would take me to school, and then pick me up from school then take me to South Bend (Indiana), about a 45-minute drive from St. Joseph for my rehab. After that, we would go back to the gym, work out and then he would take me home."
Brewer, the godfather to Magley’s daughter, returned to form his senior season on the diamond, excelling at the plate and on the basepaths.
"I got on first with a slap infield hit and would steal to get to third," Brewer said. "That's how we scored all the time in high school."
He was an all-state football and baseball player and earned all-conference honors in basketball. His athleticism allowed him to stand out at the high school level, but only one college coach believed his talent translated to the next level -- Lincoln Trail's Kevin Bowers.
"I went back the other day and looked at some film of my swing," Brewer said. "I was like, Oh my goodness. What am I doing?'
"It is crazy. I don't know what Bowers saw in me. I guess he just saw my athletic ability and saw what I could do."
At Lincoln Trail, which is located near the Robinson Correctional Institution, a medium-security state prison for men in Illinois, Brewer began emerging as a major-league prospect. He batted over .360 with 12 home runs and 73 RBIs in his two seasons.
This time, Brewer had multiple scholarship offers for baseball, but he said Michigan was the easy choice.
He had already been on a football recruiting visit to Ann Arbor in high school and grew up dreaming of going to Michigan.
Getting a chance to play for Bakich was an added bonus.
"He really cares about you and gets to know you super quick," Brewer said. "He knew all about me even before I went up there to visit. I am a huge family guy, and when I saw he knew me and my family already, that was huge. I was already bought in."
Brewer also was receptive when Bakich told him he could be an elite power hitter at the Division I level. The junior changed his swing to incorporate more use of his legs, and his power numbers took off.
He has belted 19 doubles and 12 home runs this season, with a .349 batting average. His speed also remains one of his biggest attributes, stealing 23 bases on 27 attempts.
“He is a premium athlete and when you see a guy with his type of athleticism, they typically make their way to the football field," Bakich said. "He could probably play Division I football as a wide receiver for a lot of schools. He has been able to take his baseball ability and really harness it and turn himself into a tremendous major-league prospect.”
Brewer has posted his staggering stat line while battling a turf-toe injury for most of the season. The injury kept him out of the final two games of the Big Ten Tournament and the first two games of the NCAA regional last weekend. He pinch-hit in Sunday’s regional final against Creighton and singled and stole a base in an 11-7 loss.
The following night, he returned to the starting lineup and, despite not feeling close to 100 percent, he went 3 for 5 in Michigan’s 17-6 win in the elimination game.
"I felt good," he said. "I knew once I stepped in that box, I told (second baseman) Ako Thomas that as soon as I get that one hit and get rolling, it is over with. I am going to be going again."
Bakich and other members of the baseball program have raved about Brewer's personality all season. It was no surprise when a few of his teammates banged on his hotel room door and mauled him Tuesday afternoon after he was drafted.
"It sounded like the police were trying to break down the door to the hotel room," Brewer said. "I open the door and like five guys come jump on me. I started crying. It was an amazing experience. You can't even put into words what that felt like."
But Brewer's focus quickly turned back to the Wolverines, who are trying to reach the College World Series for the first time since 1984.
The speedy outfielder is confident they will do it.
“We wouldn’t trade anyone on our team for anyone else in the country,” he said. “We are hot. We are rolling. We trust each other, we all know our roles, and when you get a team that knows their roles, it is scary.”
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