Page "Chris Weinke" Paragraph 3

Weinke was born and raised in St. Paul, MN, where he attended Cretin-Derham Hall High School and was a three-sport star-playing firstbase for the baseball team, quarterback for the football team, and was captain of the hockey team.

In 1989 during his senior year in high school, he was a Parade and USA Today first team All-America selection, was named Minnesota's prep football player of the year, and was seen as the top senior quarterback in the country.

Weinke was recruited by over 70 Division 1 schools, including Alabama, Arizona, Arizona State, Florida State, Illinois, Minnesota, Miami, Washington, and Wisconsin, but ultimately signed a national letter of intent and committed to play quarterback for the Florida State University Seminoles despite being a diehard Miami Hurricanes fan ( due to fellow Cretin-Derham Hall alumnus Steve Walsh attending the school and starring for the team at quarterback ).

However, he was also an all-state baseball player and was drafted in the 2nd Round of the 1990 Major League Baseball First-Year Player draft ( the 62nd player taken overall ) by the Toronto Blue Jays.

After spending four days in August 1990 on the FSU campus, Weinke put his college career on hold and instead signed a contract to play professional baseball and reported to the Blue Jays minor league baseball system.