As he was growing up across the highly competitive youth baseball fields of Salisbury, N.C., Vance Honeycutt was always very aware that his father, Bobby Honeycutt, had played college baseball.

But this isn’t one of those horror stories when the high-achieving father stands behind the batting cage shouting instructions to his son, or forces him to listen yet again to stories about the 1989 Tar Heel baseball team that went to the College World Series, a squad on which the elder Honeycutt was a member.

Instead, Vance understood his dad’s connection to the game because of a very different—and very welcome—reason.

“It’s not like he talked about it all the time,” Vance says. “But I always knew he had a different way of going about the game of baseball as opposed to some of the other parents of guys I played with. Starting in Little League and as I got older, his advice was always different.

“The difference was that he always understood that the game is hard. He knows hitting is hard and if you fail seven out of ten times, you’re in the Hall of Fame. He instilled that into me at a young age.”

Of course, Honeycutt has spent most of his Carolina career making the game look deceptively easy. He was one of the most exciting freshmen in the game in 2022, a third-team All-America pick and consensus Freshman All-America. Considering the circumstances, he made one of the best catches in Boshamer Stadium history in the ninth inning of a one-run elimination regional game, robbing Georgia of a game-tying home run by leaping to grab a ball that was soaring over the center field fence.

Even as his offense has been occasionally inconsistent as a sophomore, those types of dazzling catches have become a regular feature of his game in his second year in Chapel Hill. And keep in mind that finding flaws in his offense is like looking for loose bricks on the sidewalk around the Old Well. Even in a “down” year, he’s leading the ACC in walks, third in stolen bases, and in the top ten in home runs … all while being one of the two Tar Heels (along with Mac Horvath) every opponent highlights on the scouting report.

“It was important for me as a dad not to pigeonhole him into one sport,” Bobby says. “I made a promise to myself that if he was interested in other sports, we’d give him the opportunity to be exposed to those sports.”

So while other middle schoolers were playing on multiple school and travel baseball teams, the future Carolina center fielder was playing rec baseball so he’d have time to play other sports. As a result, even in his initial high school years, Vance wasn’t a part of the elite travel baseball circuit that—until this spring’s rules adjustments—sometimes saw players commit to a college before they had played a high school game.

But Salisbury is a town with deep baseball roots. So as Vance hit a growth spurt in his sophomore year, his high school coach, Mike Herndon, connected the family with the South Charlotte Panthers, one of the most prestigious and competitive travel programs in the Eastern part of the country.

It wasn’t always easy. Vance wasn’t as big as some of his teammates, many of whom had already committed to play college baseball. But his athleticism and skill level were indisputable. And eventually, a growth spurt began to put his size on par with his talent. Bobby Honeycutt remembers one afternoon standing around the batting cage at a travel tournament, watching the Panthers take some pregame hacks. His son was creating some of the loudest swings of the day, and the implications were clear. South Charlotte owner Don Hutchens approached him. “See,” Hutchens said, “I told you he was going to get bigger.”

Prospect camps are a legitimate recruiting tool in college baseball. Honeycutt attended two—one at the College of Charleston, where the Cougars are coached by Bobby Honeycutt’s former Tar Heel teammate, Chad Holbrook. And the other at Carolina.

There were other players on hand in Chapel Hill with bigger reputations according to the national scouting services. But none made a bigger impression than Honeycutt, who caught the eye of former Carolina head coach Mike Fox with his unique blend of ability and potential.

“After that camp, Coach Fox motioned us into the lobby area at Boshamer Stadium and started talking to us,” Bobby says. “His comments about Vance way exceeded our expectations. I remember getting in the car after that, and it was a really good father-son moment. We looked at each other and said, ‘I can’t believe that just happened.’”

“We got in the car and I was super pumped up,” Vance says. “I was smiling the entire car ride home.”

After that, Vance’s career path accelerated. He soon received an official scholarship offer from Carolina, which he of course accepted. His success on the field led to attention from pro teams. Bobby handled most of the discussions with scouts as his son finished his high school career, and the family made it clear that Vance wanted to be a Tar Heel. Still, the San Francisco Giants picked him in the 20th round. It was a futile selection; Vance wanted to spend his 18-to-21 year old years improving while enjoying campus, not while riding a bus in the minor leagues.

He will eventually have another decision to make. On track to be within a few credits of graduating by the end of his junior year, he will almost certainly be picked again in the 2024 draft. Before that happens, however, he wants to make a few more memories. Of all the highlight reels he has filled during his Tar Heel career, his favorites remain team accomplishments—winning the 2022 ACC Tournament and winning the 2022 Chapel Hill regional.

The ultimate team achievement, though, would be making it to Omaha as a Tar Heel. And as his father well knows, the calendar just happens to fall such that earning one of the eight slots in the College World Series almost always coincides with Father’s Day.

“Quietly, I have thought about it,” Bobby says. “My former teammates and I have talked about it amongst ourselves of how cool it would be for all of us to go back to Omaha. I haven’t been back on any of Carolina’s other trips. It would be very special to go back in the next two or three years.”