More than a game: BT Riopelle reflects as baseball career nears a conclusion

GAINESVILLE, Fla. — BT Riopelle had quietly made up his mind in March of 2021. With Coastal Carolina’s season in full swing, the catcher decided he needed to focus on the next phase of his life, even if that didn’t involve playing baseball.

After the season, Riopelle informed the coaching staff of his intentions to transfer. He entered the transfer portal but more so looking for a place to finish his college career as a student.

“I really didn’t know where I wanted to go or what I wanted to do,” BT told Gators Online in a one-on-one interview. “I knew that I needed to start prioritizing my academics. When I left Coastal, if I got an opportunity to play it would be awesome, but it would have to be a good academic fit as well.”

With his family living in Central Florida, the University of Florida was just a short drive from them. Riopelle had family ties to the school, which had recently been named a top five public university in the country.

“We had discussed it for a few months,” Duane Riopelle, BT’s father, told Gators Online this week. “His mom said, ‘Bradley, you can go play at Florida.’ His grandfather and his grandmother were Florida alum as well. Bradley looked at her and said, ‘Mom, that’s one of the number one teams in the nation. They’re not going to want me. That’s not me.’”

The text message that changed Riopelle’s future

Duane made the trip up to Conway, South Carolina to help his son pack. He assumed the typical fatherly duties of helping load the trailer with his son’s things and then hit the road with it in tow on the way back to Florida.

“He hopped in his car,” Duane recalled, “and 45 minutes later he texts me and says, ‘Dad, Florida just text me and asked me if I wanted to talk about playing baseball for them.’ Well, I used a couple of expletives, and I said, ‘What did you tell them?’ He told me he hadn’t texted them back yet and I said, ‘Well, you pull your car over right now and you have a discussion with them.'”

Riopelle, he thought, was done with baseball but the game wasn’t done with him. Kevin O’Sullivan had been hesitant to use the transfer portal but Florida needed a catcher. Riopelle was a bit of an experiment for O’Sullivan. The coach was used to pulling in the best high school talent in the country year in and year out. What would bringing in a 21-year-old catcher do to the high school recruiting class? What would it do to the clubhouse?

Riopelle walked in and immediately was one of the guys. He has a strong will. He’s a hard worker and makes the people around him rise to his level of work ethic and expectations.

Playing at the highest level he’d ever climbed to, Riopelle put together the season of his life. He played in 64 games including 62 starts at catcher, first base, and designated hitter. He slashed .304/.371/.551 with 25 extra-base hits, 38 runs, six stolen bases, and hit 15 home runs.

A left-handed hitting catcher with pop, there would surely be an MLB team that would draft him. Personally, the season couldn’t have gone any better for him. As a team, Florida fell short of its goals.

On a 2-2 count, Riopelle swung through the final offering of the Gators’ 2022 season. As the team gathered together on the field for the last time, he didn’t want it to be his final memory.

Riopelle wasn’t finished with baseball, nor was he done being a Florida Gator.

“I had the best year of my life last year,” Riopelle said. “I’m really just trying to be the best teammate I can be. Play toward a collective goal of winning a National Championship this year. Everything I do is for them. Everything I do is for this program. I’m not worried about money anymore or worried about the draft. I’m just going out there and playing and trying to win for this team.”

BT Riopelle graduated from Florida and has already accepted a job in finance that he will begin this summer.

One last ride

Every baseball career has an expiration date. For most, you reach a point where someone tells you that your skills aren’t good enough anymore. That won’t be the case for BT Riopelle. He’s going out on his own terms.

After 24 years in the Coast Guard, Duane Riopelle retired when BT was just 11 months old.

“That gave me the opportunity. I was with him all the time. He was right there. I was so happy and it’s been such a good thing for him that I was there every minute with him.”

The two grew up together on the baseball diamonds in Marietta and East Cobb. Baseball is more than just a game. It’s a vehicle for fathers and sons to learn, grow, and bond. It teaches lessons, such as how to deal with failure and how to be humble in success. More than anything, it gives you time together and those memories will last a lifetime.

Duane has only missed a handful of games this season and vows he won’t miss another. This Sunday BT will play his final regular season home game. His father, mother (Cappi), and sister (Brynn) will all be in attendance. Family was a major factor in BT’s decision to leave Coastal Carolina and he’ll have all of his immediate family by his side the rest of the way.

“It’s going to be hard,” Duane Riopelle said of what he’ll be feeling on Sunday. “I’m emotional. He’s gotten through college and he’s done a great job. I’m really proud of him for that. Baseball is going to be the hard thing, really hard for me. The last football game I cried like a little girl. I just did. I knew he was never going to play again. Baseball, it’s going to be tough.”

On Sunday, Riopelle will need to catch Jac Caglianone and try to hit Vanderbilt’s pitching staff. That will preoccupy his mind. Cappi Riopelle will still see the four-year-old boy insisting on bringing his plastic bat into Publix when her now 23-year-old son walks to the plate. Duane will, admittedly, need a tissue as he stands next to his son on the field for senior day.

“It’ll be awesome. At the end of the day, it’s senior day and whatnot but we’re just trying to win another game,” BT said. “It’s Mother’s Day, too.”

It hasn’t hit yet but it will.

“It’s going to be hard. It’s going to be hard for him not to play next year. He’s going to miss it,” Duane Riopelle said. “Hell, I’ll probably miss it more than him. It’s been 18, 19 years we’ve been doing this.”

The games may end but the lessons instilled and the memories made on those little league diamonds in East Cobb will live with the family forever.