By PETER ELACQUA
Staff Writer
Athletes of all ages have experienced dreams of reaching the stars.
Whether it is hitting a walk-off home run in Game 7 of the World Series, quarterbacking a game-winning drive late in the fourth quarter of the Super Bowl, scoring in overtime to win the Stanley Cup or hitting a buzzer beater in the NBA Finals, many have had dreams of becoming a professional athlete.
For some, their dreams become a reality. However, for most, those dreams remain dreams.
So educators are eager to offer sound advise and to prepare their student-athletes on what sort of reality awaits on the horizon.
“We promote that they are a student first,” East Brunswick High School Athletic Director Chris Yannazzo said. “The percentages of athletes going pro is so low that we want to make sure that they are students first and they know that getting a good education is important. It is about being a good teammate, managing their time and being coachable. These are all things that they could use in real-life scenarios.”
Michael Murray of Westfield had a chance at success as a professional baseball player. But despite having a career year in hitting percentage in the minors and earning All-Star recognition for the season, Murray retired from the game in 2011.
Today he is in his first year as the head baseball coach at St. Joseph’s High School in Metuchen.
“It was about realizing how many more years I was going to be treading water in the minors and that there was a good chance that I would never play in the majors,” Murray said. “I was a good enough hitter for the minors, but I did not feel like I was going to be good enough in the majors.”
Murray was a four-year starting catcher at Westfield High School and was an All-State player. He attended Wake Forest University in North Carolina, where he played all four years while he gained his undergraduate degree. After graduating, he signed as a free agent with the San Fransisco Giants and played two years in their farm system.
Murray said that he did not feel a lot of pressure to become a Major League Baseball player during his time in the minors. He enjoyed traveling with the team and playing the sport he loved.
“I think the simple math was that I was more likely to be a lawyer than to be a professional baseball player,” Murray said. “I wanted to be a Major League Baseball player since I was seven, but I was taught to play the rest of my life like baseball was not a part of it.”
Murray, who is pursuing a law degree from Rutgers and has a master’s degree in sports business from Columbia University, grew up understanding life in the minor leagues. His late father, Mike Murray, played for the Chicago White Sox organization in the 1980s.
And today Michael is guiding his brother, A.J. Murray, who is playing for a Class-A affiliate of the Minnesota Twins. A.J. Murray was drafted in the 14th round by the Twins last June after a standout career at Georgia Tech. A.J. Murray was also an All-Stater and was named New Jersey’s State Player of the Year as a senior at Westfield High.
As for what advice he would give to anybody who wanted to be a professional athlete, Murray said, “Get a college education, if sports can help pay for it that is great. Do not put yourself in a position where you fall short of making it and you do not have a backup plan.”
“You have to know what kind of a child you are and what kind of a family you have. I knew a pitcher who was offered $2 million, but he came from a rich family. He did not need it and he went to college. It is different for somebody who comes from a poor family and they think that $200,000 is the largest amount of money they are going to see. What matters is how they value education and how they value the dollar amount they are being offered.”
Murray said that playing multiple sports is important because of the lessons each sport has to offer. Other than baseball, he played basketball and hockey growing up. He also wrote for the school newspaper and was a peer mediator in high school.
To become a professional athlete, Yannazzo said, “It takes hard work, determination, being coachable and having realistic goals. It is important to have dreams and to try to shoot for them. Being in high school athletics is not about going pro, it is about the other positive things that could impact a student’s life.”
“We will never tell somebody that they are setting themselves up for failure. It is a good thing to have goals,” Yannazzo said.
James Muldowney is the supervisor of health and physical education in Edison after he had served as the athletic director at J.P. Stevens High School in Edison for eight years.
He has seen his share of talented high school athletes, including during his stint as the head coach for the Edison High School baseball team. He guided an Edison club that was ranked among the state powers in baseball during the late 1980s and into the 1990s.
“Athletes nowadays are specializing in a certain sport, Muldowney said. “There are no more three-sport athletes, which is unfortunate.”
“Everyone gets caught up in playing Division 1,” Muldowney said. “There are great programs on the Division III or Junior College level. They have to find the right fit, and it takes a lot of work in some cases to find it. Reality sometimes is a real smack in the face.”
Joe Montano, who has been the athletic director at Red Bank Catholic High School for 25 years, said that in order to be a professional athlete it takes, “tremendous work ethic, talent and the ability to be competitive. I think that playing multiples sports is very helpful in order to help them grow as an athlete.”
He pointed out that three graduates of Red Bank Catholic are presently playing professionally in their sports.
Donald Brown, who played football and ran track in high school, is an eight-year veteran of the NFL who recently signed with the New England Patriots. Ryan Kalish, who played baseball and basketball and ran track scholastically, plays in the Chicago Cubs organization. Samantha Guastella, who earned All-Shore Conference honors in basketball and volleyball, is starring while playing in a professional women’s basketball league in Luxembourg.
In regard to his opinion about students either leaving school early or skipping school to pursue a career as a professional athlete, Montano said, “In our case, Donald Brown gave up his fourth year at UConn (University of Connecticut) and got drafted and he went back and finished his degree. Ryan Kalish was drafted by the Red Sox out of high school and was committed to going to Virginia,” Montano said. “He never went to college. I would have loved to see him get his degree and have something to fall back on. Each case is different.”
“Some kids underestimate what they can do because they don’t want to fail. If that is the case, then they do not have to mental makeup to be a professional athlete,” Montano said.
When it comes to when young athletes realize that they cannot be a pro athlete, Montano said, “The sport tells them. They leave here and they are great at their position and you get to that level of whether it is the draft, the sport lets them know where they are at.”
Louis “Del” Dal Pra, who has been the athletic director at Red Bank Regional High School for eight years, gave his opinion.
“In order to be a professional athlete, one has to have God-given ability, a strong work ethic and have the mentality for it,” Dal Pra said. “It is how they react from failure or not succeeding all the time and being able to overcome setbacks.”
“Athletes these days do not plan for not making it,” Dal Pra said, “They put their eggs in one basket and sell themselves short.”
Offering support, said Robert Eriksen, the athletic director at Old Bridge High School for eight years, is important.
“We encourage our athletes to work hard in the classroom, work hard athletically and we encourage them to participate at the next level in college whether it is Division I, II or III,” Eriksen said. “Even if they have the opportunity to not go to school and they decide that is the avenue they want to pursue with their family, we are behind them 100 percent.”
As for what advice he would give to someone who wants to pursue a career as a professional athlete, Yannazzo said, “Be a lifelong learner. I think having realistic goals, being well-rounded and playing different sports is important. They have to put in the time and effort if that is something they would like to pursue. Every individual is different but they do not play sports forever. Having a good background and a college degree was personally important for me, and I think it is a nice thing to fall back on. Injuries happen, other scenarios happen and they want to make sure that they have something to fall back on. Every person is different and they will do the decisions that they believe that are best for them and their families.”
“They should try to get an education,” Dal Pra said. “Best case scenario, if they go professional, they are not an athlete forever. If they have that ability and go pro right out of high school or college, it doesn’t last forever and they need something to fall back on.”
“They should take it one step at a time no matter what path they decide to take,” Eriksen said.
“If this is what they would like to pursue, then they should follow their dreams and all the power to them,” Muldowney said.