Thomas Sotirakopulos '23 Recruiting Profile

Since I was three, I always had the talent to succeed in football and baseball with bare minimum effort. This all changed sophomore year when Covid hit. Covid swept away my summer baseball and sophomore fall football season. I did nothing besides school work all of early sophomore year, until football season began with a late-start in spring. The season went great, with practice everyday and playing the two positions I love: quarterback and safety. My mind was tunneled into my football season, with no effort or thought put into baseball. The football season ended, and baseball tryouts were two days afterward. I was not prepared for baseball tryouts, with no practice since baseball freshman year. In the past, my talent always exceeded many others on the mound, which made me feel like I was going to make the team. However, I was unprepared for the tryout. I let myself and the coaches down.

The coaches stated that I wasn’t “athletic enough” and wasn’t a person ready to play at “this kind of level.” I was in shock and in disbelief. Once I told my dad I didn’t make it, he also couldn’t believe it. My dad was in such disbelief that he even emailed the coaches saying that it was an “unfair tryout” with “no preparation to get prepared since football just ended.” Even though I knew I was talented enough to play sophomore baseball, I told my dad that I did it to myself. It was my fault. I told him that “I deserved what was handed to me” and “I haven’t played in such a long time.” I came to the conclusion that I defeated myself. However, this wasn’t the end, this was just the beginning to a new chapter in my life.

 I knew I had ten months until the next tryout, and I wanted to show my true talent in baseball. This fueled something I was missing. I came to the realization that nothing is handed to me. I found inner-strength to prove to myself and my coaches that I was a good athlete–I was good enough to play on the JV baseball team. Each day since the tryout, I went to the batting cages three days a week to maximize my talent for the rest of the school year. Furthermore, I knew I had to get stronger to play at the next level. I did research for hours on how to maximize muscle growth, allowing myself to reach my peak strength and abilities to prepare for the following season. My dedication to working out on the right program six days a week and going to the batting cages took up the majority of my life outside of school. After ten months of consistency and discipline, the moment of truth arrived. I still doubted my ability to make the team. However, my hard work finally paid off when I was brought into a room and told I made the team.

The day I got cut was the day my life changed for the better. My discipline defines me now. It’s in everything I do. It’s in my school work, it’s in every sport I play, it’s in the relationships I have; discipline turned into every part of my life. From this difficult moment, where I experienced great rejection, I came to a realization that hard work beats talent. From this failure, I learned that in order to succeed in life, I need to go above and beyond.