UP athletes continue to work in off-season to groom their ?professional skills
By Jeff Trousdale
The end of the school year is creeping up, and for many seniors this means stress. Preparing résumés and going to job interviews can become overwhelming and often times mind-boggling.
Senior Mark Triolo is like many other seniors preparing for their futures in corporate America. But instead of going through job listings and polishing his public speaking, he is working on his fastball and alternating heavy lifting with conditioning work.
Triolo is a pitcher for the Pilots' baseball team, and one of a handful of UP athletes who might go pro in their respective sport. Triolo said that the chance to play professionally would fulfill a longtime dream of his.
"I look forward to it because baseball is a passion of mine and I would love to do it as a career," Triolo said.
According to Triolo, his final season at UP will be an important step in preparing himself both physically and mentally for the professional game, though his time in school has already done a lot in helping him.
"The main thing that has helped me here is developing discipline, not only as a player but as a person,' Triolo said.
Developing discipline is one of the most important lessons that most NCAA athletes can use for their future careers. That is because, for most college athletes, their future jobs will have nothing to do with the sport that dominates so much of their time in college.
According to the NCAA, only 1 percent of college athletes will go on to play professionally, something that senior cross country star David Kinsella is finding out for himself.
Kinsella has had an outstanding, albeit injury prone, five years as a Pilot runner. He placed a school record eighth as a junior at the NCAA national championships, and bested his own record as a senior this year by placing fourth overall. However, Kinsella is still unsure whether he will run professionally at all.
"It's not like football or basketball, not as much of a proportion of runners go pro," Kinsella said. "Unless you are an absolute once in a lifetime phenom it's a self driven thing."
Kinsella has hopes of going to law school, with Stanford being one possible option, and said that he doesn't want running to stand in the way of his other aspirations. Most runners make their money through shoe company sponsorships as well as winning races, and Kinsella said that his hopes of going to law school have hurt him in the eyes of the major shoe companies.
"I think in this economy that the law school thing hurts me," Kinsella said. "If (the shoe companies) are going to give someone money they want to eke everything out of them and have them fully committed to the sport."
If Kinsella did go pro he would likely specialize in the marathon, the event that makes the most money for professional runners. He also talked about the possibility of running professionally while pursuing a law degree at Stanford, but said that such an arrangement would be unlikely to happen.
Megan Rapinoe, who graduated in the fall, is another UP athlete who shined during her time on The Bluff, and so far she is the only graduate from this year to actually be on a professional team. She was drafted with the second pick in the Women's Professional Soccer draft by the Chicago Red Stars, one of the franchises in the new league that will begin play in March of this year. Rapinoe said that the coaches at UP played a major role in preparing her for professional soccer.
"The coaching staff understands a lot about what it takes to be successful at the next level, whether that be pro or national teams, and run our programs as close to that as they can," Rapinoe said via e-mail.
Rapinoe said that professional soccer has always been a dream for her, and she hopes to play as long as she can. Triolo had similar hopes for his career, but he said that he would also like to teach or coach baseball if a professional playing career doesn't work out for him. Triolo said that he wants to get drafted in the 15 rounds, but he acknowledged that just getting a chance to play professionally is his ultimate goal.
Triolo, Rapinoe and Kinsella are not the only UP senior athletes with professional aspirations. Senior soccer players Bryan Irwin and Leland Wright have looked into their professional playing options. Irwin has been invited to try out for the Portland Timbers and also hopes for the chance to play overseas.
"I'm just excited for the chance to keep playing soccer," Irwin said. "It will be a lot more physical but it should be a good challenge."
Triolo's teammates, pitchers Matthew Lange, Brennan Thorpe and infielder Chase Powell were also mentioned by baseball Head Coach Chris Sperry as players with professional prospects.
So while the rest of the senior class toils over paperwork and prepare for careers as engineers, teachers, business people and nurses, these athletes prepare also, but for professions that most only dreamed about as children. Rapinoe is readying for her move to Chicago, but she jokingly said in her e-mail that she is trying to give her former teammates a sense of what it is like to play against a pro.
"Anytime I get a chance to show those little college kids what's what I take full advantage."
