As many current seniors consider their athletic careers after school, it made us ask the question: How do college athletic programs differ from high school?

For our first Q&A, we reached out to GianCarlo Palmieri, a graduate of the HHS Class of 2018.

Q: What school are you at, and what are you studying there? What year are you?

A: I go to Rowan College Gloucester County, and I am a Health and Sciences studying for the Nursing program.  I am also in my freshman year of college.

Q: How does playing on a college team shapes your day-to-day?

A: I went to my first college baseball practice not thinking it was going to be anything like a high school practice. Playing at RCGC is all about baseball.  You have to want to eat, breath, and sleep baseball, to play here. If you don’t know the game you’ll figure it out real quick because we practice about 3 hours to 3 and a half hour per day. Day-to- day consists of waking up going to one to two classes per day than practice and possibly a lift after practice then homework.  Then before I go to bed I’m usually studying stuff our coach sends us if it’s a video of something he was trying to teach us that day at practice or a picture showing something he was trying to teach us. During the fall was practice every day for 3 hours a day then played double headers every weekend against a D1 school and those days lasted at least 6 hours on the field playing.  Now getting ready for the season we’ve been practicing Monday-Friday and then have a 6am practice on Saturday and off on Sunday. We play 50+ games starting this weekend in NC and Virginia all the way up till the beginning of May when the playoffs start.

Q:How do you manage your academics and sports? What are the challenges?

A: I manage my academics pretty well because I happened to get on the Dean’s List for my fall semester and have a 3.71 GPA. There isn’t many challenges, but just always busy playing baseball which I love and then homework and sleep.

Q: How does playing at the college level compare to high school?

A: Coaching is a lot different and so are practices, and games and I love it I have so much more knowledge for the game and a lot more to learn. My coach is always coaching no matter especially breaking everything down and coaching about the little things.

Q: Do you have modify other aspects of your daily life? 

A: Only things that are really different are the time I get to spend with my family or friends, but I have another family with my teammates.  I have learned to eat a lot healthier because of my nutrition class I’ve take my first semester. I get a little less sleep but a good amount of sleep to give me energy for my next day. My social life isn’t as busy I see my friends when I can.