Photo by Sam Thiel Marshall’s AJ Toulouse signs his National Letter of Intent Thursday to play baseball at Waldorf University.

MARSHALL – There might be snow on the ground, but that didn’t stop AJ Toulouse from thinking about the next few springs.

The Marshall senior recently signed his National Letter of Intent to play baseball at Waldorf University in Forest City, Iowa.

Toulouse was excited to see this day come and have his dream become a reality.

“I’m really excited,” Toulouse said. “It’s really been a dream of mine to play college baseball and now that it’s finally a reality, it’s crazy, especially with everything going on and not having a junior season. It’s just an awesome feeling.”

Toulouse said aside from playing baseball, what drew him to Waldorf was their campus and the coaching staff of the program. He added he plans to major either in secondary education or criminology.

“I’ve always had a love of baseball and the game itself, but Waldorf has a great school, it’s close to family and it’s a good class size. The coach was really awesome and I really like him and everything kind of just worked out and I chose Waldorf and I’m happy with it.”

The past few years, Toulouse has been a key contributor to Marshall’s success on the diamond throughout his time at MHS. He attributed that to the impact his coaches and teammates have had on him.

Toulouse said all of his coaches have helped him improve both on and off the field and have left a positive impact on him.

“Coach [Chace] Pollock, coach [Mitchell] Maxwell and all of my other high school coaches, my younger coaches, my dad who used to coach my younger team, they’ve all just really helped me in improving as a baseball player and as a person,” Toulouse said. “I’ve gotten better with my fundamentals, hitting, fielding and they’ve just really positively impacted my life outside of the game of baseball.”

He added that his teammates as well have played a key role and he’s grateful for getting to play alongside them.

“They’re beyond awesome, I can’t thank them enough,” Toulouse said. “Baseball’s a really team-oriented sport and without them, we can’t have the success that we do.”

Before he heads down to Forest City, Toulouse will hopefully have one final spring with the Marshall baseball team. Toulouse said he’s looking forward to just being able to spend time with his friends, family and coaches and have an opportunity to put on the Marshall uniform one more time.

“Just one more season with my friends and family, with coach Pollock especially and just getting to play in the Marshall uniform has always been fun,” Toulouse said.