Roch Cholowsky, UCLAs selfless superstar, could be top pick in MLB draft

The request came in like so many others, a sick kid wanting to connect with a star college athlete.Hearing about the situation, Roch Cholowsky took off like he was trying to beat out an infield single.The UCLA shortstop went to see the teenage boy battling a rare and aggressive cancer before his coach had even asked whether he could find the time.In characteristic fashion for someone who tends to take things to the extreme, Cholowsky didn’t just show up to visit Johnny Brande – he brought the entire team.Thirty players crammed into that hospital room on the night before the Bruins commenced their postseason run to the 2025 College World Series.This was no photo op.

Cholowsky returned with another group of teammates the following fall, continually corresponded with the kid via direct messages and wrote J.B.on his cleats after Brande passed away in December.“I could start crying again,” Erin Brande, Johnny’s mother, told the California Post, “because what he meant and what he did for Johnny made the difference for our son.”Putting others first has become a theme for the player widely expected to go before anyone else in the Major League Baseball draft on Saturday.Cholowsky honored a late travel-ball friend by writing his number in the infield dirt when he took his position and again near home plate before at-bats.

He gave every UCLA teammate cleats as part of his deal with Nike.He even watered the outfield grass at his home field, a soon-to-be millionaire pitching in to keep Jackie Robinson Stadium pristine.One of his first acts after UCLA’s season-ending loss last month was to console the devastated bat boy, locking the teary kid in a warm embrace.

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