Joey Drapeau was born in Biddeford, Maine on December 30th, 1979. He grew up watching his Father, Andy, play softball and broomball. This is where his love of sports began. At a very young age, Joey excelled at all sports. As a 3rd grader at Saint Andres Catholic School, you would find him in the school yard playing with the 5th and 6th graders. He was usually picked well before most of the older boys to be on a team. Growing up, his father coached his older brother, Justin, on many different sports teams. Joey was lucky enough to be able to play during practices. From a young age, Joey always excelled on the diamond. He was the starting shortstop for the East Biddeford Little League All-Star teams as an 11 and 12 year old, and he was a key part of his 13 year old Biddeford Senior League team making it to the North East Regionals. Joey believes that the countless hours of whiffle ball with the neighborhood boys is what laid the foundation for his homerun swing.
While at Biddeford High School, Joey excelled at both football and baseball. On the gridiron, he was a star running back for the Tigers and was an All-State selection as a junior and senior. He also was a runner-up for the Fitzpatrick Trophy and played in the Lobster Bowl. On the diamond, Joey started as a sophomore on the Western Maine championship baseball team that would eventually fall to Bangor 2-1 in extra innings for the state title in 1996. He had a great career at Biddeford High School. In his senior year, he led the team with 6 homeruns, had a .535 batting average, and was a USA Today High School All-American. Joey signed his letter of intent to play baseball at the University of Maine in the fall of 1997.
Joey arrived at Mahaney Diamond on the UMaine campus in the fall of 1998. He learned quickly that being a high school star didn’t matter much at the Division 1 level. Joey ended up as a redshirt his freshman year and didn’t have a single college at bat until a year and a half later in the spring of 2000. As a now redshirt freshman, Joey hit the ground running and never looked back. He started at third base and led the Black Bears in hitting with a .359 avg and crushed a team high and freshman record 16 homeruns. He was named the America East Conference Rookie of the Year, Second Team All-Conference, First Team All-New England, Baseball America All-American, and Louisville Slugger Freshman All-American.
Throughout the years playing for the Black Bears, he had many career highlights. These highlights include, 3 homeruns in a game against Delaware as a sophomore, being the start to a 5-4-3 triple play against Holy Cross, and as a senior he was named team captain. He was selected to the America East All-Conference and to the All-New England team all four years he played from 2000 through 2003. He also was picked as a sophomore and senior for the Baseball America PreSeason All-American team. Joey played his summer ball in the NECBL for the Eastern Tides located in Connecticut and the Coastal Plains League for the Fayetteville Swamp Dogs located in North Carolina. Both of these teams were premiere college baseball wooden bat leagues.
Joey truly enjoyed playing baseball for his state university and left with an impressive list of career accomplishments. He is still 2nd on the UMaine all-time home run list with 50, he is 2nd in runs batted in with 196, and 5th in doubles with 58. He got to play with a fellow hall of famer, Mike MacDonald (15), and for hall of fame coach, Paul Kostacopoulos (14).
After his baseball career was over, Joey spent a few years as an assistant coach for the varsity team at Biddeford High School. He was inducted into the Biddeford Sports Hall of Fame in 2015. Today Joey lives in Biddeford working as a senior loan specialist for a national mortgage company. He is an avid golfer and still loves competing. Sadly, in 2017, his wife Jennifer passed away from a rare form of cancer, so most of his time is devoted to raising his two young daughters, Brynn and Aria.
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