A year ago, Morris’ Jack Wheeler was like many recent high school graduates. He was spending time with his classmates after receiving his diploma and was preparing to attend University of Illinois, where he had signed to play college baseball.

A funny thing happened on the way to Champaign.

Wheeler was selected by the Texas Rangers in the sixth round of the Major League Baseball draft. The son of Garrett and Jody Wheeler signed with Texas on July 22 of last year and went to Arizona to be a part of the ACL Rangers in the Arizona Complex League.

He is back in Arizona this season, and he is showing the form that made him the Illinois Class 3A Player of the Year following his senior season. Through 94 at-bats for the Rangers, he is hitting .309 with four home runs, eight doubles, two triples, 23 RBIs and an OPS of .935. Although he was a two-way standout as both a pitcher and hitter in high school, he said that his pitching days are behind him and that he has played every inning at third base so far this season.

“I’ve been hitting the ball well,” Wheeler said. “I have one of the best hard-hit rates in the entire ACL. I have been working on laying off the first-pitch or 0-1 breaking balls and looking to get fastballs that I can drive, and that has been working out pretty well.

“The main thing we have been working on is my defense. That can always get better. Every day, I get to the park a half-hour early and one of the coaches will hit me grounders for a half-hour before anyone else is around.”

At 6-foot-5, it’s easy to forget that Wheeler is just 19 years old and he is away from the comforts of home for an extended period for the first time. However, he seems to be making that adjustment nearly as smoothly as he has on the field.

“The facility they have here in Arizona is really nice,” he said. “We share the fields with the Kansas City organization. On the main field, we use the third-base dugout and they use the first-base dugout. Our living facilities are across the parking lot along the third-base side and Kansas City’s is on the first-base side, so everyone can just walk over to the field six days a week.

“We have games almost every day, but Sunday is our one day off. On those days, we will go to church, maybe go play some golf, get something to eat together. I have already made some pretty good friends.”

One interesting thing that has happened to Wheeler was being caught on video by a child, about 10-11 years old, who had a winning idea for a device to help break in gloves on the TV show, “Shark Tank.” In the video, the young entrepeneur was waiting outside the Rangers’ facility and asked Wheeler if he would like to try out his invention. Wheeler agreed and asked how much he owed him. The boy said he was just looking for players to try it and let him know how it worked and that it was free. Wheeler, though, went and grabbed a bat, signed it and traded the boy for the break-in device.

“I had just received a shipment of about three gloves,” Wheeler said. “I figured I would try it out. It actually worked pretty well.”

While he is enjoying his time in the ACL, Wheeler is hoipeful that he won’t be spending much more time there.

“I am hoping that by the All-Star break that I will get sent up to Class A,” he said. “One of my good friends from down here has already been called up and there are a few more of us that are going pretty good so far and should be moved up soon. I am definitely looking forward to taking that next step and seeing what I can do at that level.”

Confident without being cocky, Wheeler has a ready-made sounding board back home if he needs it. Fellow Morris graduate Kelly Dransfeldt was a Rangers’ draft pick in the 1990s and eventually played in the major leagues for both Texas and the White Sox before he retired and settled back in Morris. It so happened that the Dransfeldts and Wheelers ended up living in the same neighborhood and have been close for years.

“I will get a text from Kelly once in a while,” Wheeler said. “He and my dad are good friends and I have known him pretty much my whole life. It’s pretty cool that we ended up getting drafted by the same organization, and he’s a good guy to be able to talk to since he has gone through everything that I am going through now.”