Menlo News January 05, 2018

Five Menlo alums return to offer advice for future college athletes

They shared their experiences with the recruiting process, social adjustment, and balancing academics with athletics

Young alumni from Menlo School speak about their college sports experiences. Photo by Pete Zivkov.

 Moderated by Upper School college counselor Lisa Giarratano, the panel of, from left, Ben Somorjai ’17 (Haverford College baseball), Hayden Pegley ’17 (Vanderbilt football), Vikram Chari ’15 (Vanderbilt tennis), Jamie Corley ’15 (Tufts soccer), and John Wilson ’14 (Johns Hopkins water polo) shared their experiences with the recruiting process, social adjustment, and balancing academics with athletics.

Among the key pieces of advice and insight the panel offered future intercollegiate student-athletes, Wilson suggested using weekend athletics trips to get a set, limited amount of homework done instead of trying to use hotel time to do all of one’s weekend homework.

Pegley said, “Sports gave me some much-needed structure during the first few months of college,” explaining that while many of his peers were trying to figure out how to balance schoolwork with exciting new social opportunities, he already had extensive practice obligations that essentially set his schedule for him.

And, of the recruiting process, Somorjai said, “My goal was to let baseball get me into the best school possible,” adding that he considered pursuing other opportunities at schools with more prestigious baseball programs, but ultimately determined Haverford was the best fit for him.

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