Posts Tagged ‘baseball’

PROFILE: Wayward Son Finds All Roads Lead to Marietta

Applying for college was the last thing on 18-year-old Mike Pankowski’s mind that day when his mom came into the room and she told him he didn’t have a choice.

Mike lived in the present and with prom coming up and his girlfriend on his arm the world couldn’t have been better. But his mom was serious so he applied to three colleges, one of them being Marietta College.

“My mom took me up to Marietta four weekends in a row to see the school and the baseball coach wanted me here too so I said OK let’s do it,” said Pankowski.

That was in 2005 and Mike is still on his path of discovery, finding himself back at Marietta for the third time in 2010. It wasn’t an easy journey but one he learned from.

“I am not one to regret things, as I stand behind every action I have taken. If I could ‘change’ one aspect of my life, it would have been my decision to neglect the college search. I believe that if I would have listened to my mother and taken the time to look at colleges of all types and sizes, then my life would have been different. I am not saying for the better, but none-the-less, completely different. Change is never bad, but a different challenge in life that opens up new doors to opportunity,” said Pankowski.

The summer of 2005 came and went quickly and Mike found himself in his first semester freshmen year that went really well ending up with a 3.1 GPA. The beginning was a little rocky because when the first baseball practice rolled around, he slept through it. The ironic thing is though it ended up working out well in the end because track and field became his new passion.

“Everything happens for a reason and one day I decided to talk to Coach (Derek) Stanley and ask if I could throw the javelin because I had done it in high school,” said Pankowski. “I got really into it and ended up getting the school record that spring.”

Unfortunately Mike blew out his back that spring as well and he lost a lot of his direction in life. When he came back for the fall ready for track and field he tore his ACL during an intramural flag football game. From then on, it all went down hill and any direction or motivation Mike had was gone. That semester consisted of surgery, rehab and no schoolwork. So when grades came along, straight C’s didn’t let him keep his scholarship and his parents told him they weren’t paying anymore.

“I had to make a decision at that point and I didn’t know what I wanted to do with my life so I decided some time off was the best option,” said Pankowski. “I didn’t tell anyone I was leaving because it was really embarrassing. I had a lot of friends at school and I feel like I let down a lot of people.”

Pankowski’s best friend Kevin Rykaceski has stood by his side through all his ups and downs.

“Mike and I have been friends since we were 10 years old after I beat him up playing basketball, I guess that united us because we still hang out all the time,” said Rykaceski. “Mike’s that one friend that when either of us are having a bad day we call each other up and I mean if he called me one day and said he wanted to go to Hawaii, I would go.”

Mike got a job at a pool company where he eventually became a pool manger and in the spotlight all the time. Then one day at work in 2008 it all hit him at once.

“I was standing there with all these people around me asking questions and damning orders out of me as I’m trying to organize everything and I had to go, I had to get out of there,” said Pankowski. “I went to lunch by myself and right then and there decided to go back to Marietta.”

So Mike decided to go back to Marietta for a semester and just signed up for classes and went. There were still a lot of people there he knew so needless to say some were in shock when he dropped off the planet for two years and then just showed up at school one day.

“I just wanted to go to school for a semester and prove to myself I could do it, so I took three classes and got A’s in all three,” said Pankowski. “But I still didn’t know what I wanted to do so I went back to work.”

That next year was when Mike really found his true passion and put everything together. He was working at a lumberyard 6am-530pm, at the pool, taking night classes three days a week and waiting tables on the weekend. He also starting mountain biking and fell in love with the outdoors.

“Me and my friends would go on trips and live off the land for five days at a time, I absolutely loved it,” said Pankowski. “This brought me to realize what I really wanted to do with my life and that I wanted to go back to school to study environmental science.”

So in October 2009 Mike found himself calling Coach Stanley again, applying for classes and renting an apartment in downtown Marietta. It had been a long journey but he knew for sure this time he wanted to be there and it was worth his money.

Pankowski’s Javelin coach now, Ken Ciolek had only positive things to say about his return.

“From the two conversations that we had I knew that I was dealing with a rare breed. Mike is the type of person that all teachers, and coaches search for. Motivated to succeed and eager to learn along with the type of understanding of the “big picture” that many of us are still trying to grasp and understand. I find myself learning from him as much if not more that he learns from me in our correspondence at javelin practice,” said Ciolek.

With the rest of his life before him Mike looks back on his experiences with knowledge and understanding.

“My experiences showed me that there is more to life than that great car, the cool group, or the college degree. Yes, I feel with my degree I will prove myself to many, but it takes more than that for someone to prove themselves to me. I have met people with a high school education who work in the real world, and I would be willing to put my life in their hands over 95 percent of the people at Marietta College, or all college grads for that matter,” said Pankowski. “Point is, the world revolves around the belief that winning this competition makes a person, or the college degree makes me better than you and so on. My experiences helped me realize who I was, and who I wanted to be, not because of my neighbor or because of her/his success in life, but because I now have 1,000 doors in front of me, and it’s up to me, and only me to pick the path of my life. It’s my life to live, my life to choose and my life to party.”

EDITOR’S NOTE:  This article is by Danielle Staub, a Media Writing Two student at Marietta College.  If you are interested in writing for Writing on the Mall, send an e-mail to Patrick_H@writingonthemall.net.

LIVE TWEET of MC Baseball Game Today

@MWashMC has live coverage of the Marietta College/LaRoche game on his Twitter. Radio coverage available on 88.3 WMRT or online at http://bit.ly/97f4Ho

LATE-BREAKING: Mideast Region Baseball Tournament Coming to Marietta

Marietta College to host the NCAA Division III Mideast Regional Baseball Tournament in 2010. This will be the 12th Mideast Regional at Marietta College, which last hosted in 2002. Stay tuned to Writing on the Mall for more information on this developing story.

Public Enemies Reviewed By Recent Alumni

Mike Eisenberg, former Marietta College Broadcasting Major (now a graduate, was a member of the ‘Etta Express during their championship run, and former member of the Cleveland Indians minor league system) has posted his review of Public Enemies, a movie on the life of notorious criminal John Dillinger.  Head over to his site to check out his review of that and many other movies.

NCAA Division 3 Track And Field Championships Start Today

After a weekend loss for the Pioneers in the Division 3 Baseball Mideast Regional, Marietta College campus staff and volunteers turned to their own Division 3 Championship weekend for success in a different way.

Starting today, Marietta College hosts the NCAA Division 3 Men’s and Women’s Outdoor Track Championships at Don Drumm Stadium. The event runs through Saturday, the 23rd.

Nearly 700 student athletes, their athletic trainers, coaches, and families from around the nation have descended on Marietta, which is hosting its first major Division 3 Championship since hosting the D3 Baseball Championships from 1976 to 1987 (1976 was the first year that Division 3 Baseball existed).

There are several side events planned to go along with the Championships, including events at Don Drumm and on Front Street. Tonight (Thursday) from 4:30 to 9 PM, restaurants along Front Street will be offering discounts and deals for those wearing Track Championship credentials or wristbands. So fans that buy tickets can also enjoy the same discounts that the student-athletes and coaches get. No list was announced, but a list will be available at the information booths at both Don Drumm and Hermann Fine Arts Center.

On Friday night, a children’s olympics will be held at Don Drumm Stadium from 7 to 9:30 PM. Kids aged 6 to 13 can compete in various olympic events that have been altered to work a bit better for the young ones. The big kicker for the night is a fireworks show around 9:15 PM. The event is being organized by the Marietta College Track & Field Event Management class and is free for the Marietta community, student-athletes, volunteers, coaches, and all others to attend.

For Marietta, the focus is on its two athletes, Jayshon Irvin (Freshman, 100m dash), and Zach Gay (Junior, High Jump). Good luck gentlemen, hopefully you can bring back the hardware. Or I should say, carry it over to the display case in Dyson.

Etta Express Rolls On

The Marietta Pioneers bring a whoopin’ upon Adrian College, with a 14-3 victory.

MC moves on to the second day of games to face Wooster, who beat Concordia (Ill.) 5-1.  Heidelberg, Concordia (Ill.), and Adrian now face elimination with another loss.  Heidelberg will play Concordia (Ill.), while Rose-Hulman will play Adrian.

You can listen for the Pioneers from the Online Stream starting at 5 PM Friday.  Depending on who is eliminated tomorrow, there are several different ways of how Saturday’s games will come together.  After Friday’s games, I will post when Marietta plays next.

Mideast Region – Day 2

Games are underway in the Mideast Region today. With the rain gone, game one was played, showing us that the underdogs are here to play. Rose-Hulman beat Heidelberg 12-2. Wooster and Concordia (Ill.) are currently playing, and Marietta will play the home team, Adrian College, at 4PM.

Here’s the link if you’d like to listen to coverage of MC vs AC: http://pioneers.marietta.edu/onlinebroadcasts.html

Marietta College D3 Tournament Preview

After falling to Heidelberg in the OAC tournament, Marietta College received an at-large bid for the Division 3 Baseball Tournament.  This is the 34th time the Pioneers will be in the post-season in baseball.

Playing tonight at #4 Adrian College (Start time of 6:50 PM), the #3 Marietta Pioneers will begin the march into what is hopefully a long post-season.  While the Pioneers were unranked for most of the season nationally (they did finish with 10 votes, effectively making them the 35th best team in the nation), they finished with a ranking of 4th in the Mideast Region (but seeded third).  Comparitively, the other OAC team in the tournament (Heidelberg) was ranked #4 in the nation, #1 in the region.

Adrian College was not ranked nationally, but was ranked 6th in the Mideast Region (receiving a #4 seed for the tournament).

The Mideat Region plays in Adrian, Michigan this year, and like the rest of Division 3, features a Double-elimination format.

If Marietta wins tonight’s game, they will play Thursday at 7 PM against the winner of the Wooster/Concordia (Ill.) match-up.  If MC loses, they play at 3:30 PM tomorrow against the winner of the Heidelberg/Rose-Hulman match-up.  Past that, the tournament gets much more cloudy.  But I’ll keep you updated as the tournament progresses.

D3Baseball.com is looking at Heidelberg to advance, but sees Adrian as a possible upset special for the second year in a row.  Hopefully Marietta can put something together here in the post-season.

All Marietta College games can be heard tonight anywhere in the world thanks to an online stream off of the Marietta Athletics site.  There would be two streams if school was still in session, but oh well.

CUB Announces Spring Trips

Looking for college sponsored trips around the state of Ohio?  have no fear, CUB has you covered.

The College Union Board has decided to send students to three locations throughout the semester.  Sadly, none of them appear to be the rumored sky diving trip.

On March 28th, CUB continues a tradition of promoting shop-a-holic-ism with a return trip to Easton Shopping Center in Columbus.  Tickets are $5 and will go on sale March 22nd.  The $5 gets you on a bus to Easton, and allows you the entertainment of a movie.  Exact times and movie name has not been released yet.  It’s a good chance to go to a great shopping center and check out some cool places, like the Apple Store.

On April 4th, the CUBbies will be going to the Columbus Zoo.  There is no price announced quite yet, but tickets are to go on sale March 29th.

On April 25th, its time to play baseball.  Well, kinda.  CUB will be taking MC students to the Cleveland Indians game against the Minnesota Twins.  No price has been announced yet, and no ticket sale date was mentioned either.