Man Of Steel: How Eric Russo Finds Inspiration To Overcome Life’s Obstacles

Editor’s Note: Eric is a 2017 graduate of Centereach HS. He is uncommitted at the moment, but has put himself on the radar since this past summer when his velocity spiked from the upper 70s to mid 80s. )

By Eric Russo

There have been many things that have held me back throughout my life– both on and off of the field.

The most prominent of which occurred before I could even take the field. My family has had to persevere through some struggles the last few years that no family should ever have to deal with. I was born with two special needs siblings; my sister that has cerebral palsy, and my little brother that has autism. So taking care of them has always been more important and had to come before baseball.

This become more prominent when my dad died of cancer when I was ten years old. I was forced to take over the role of “man of the house” and take care of my siblings more so than ever before. Due to this, baseball became more of an escape– it was a means for a future. But even on the field, I physically was at a disadvantage in comparison to those around me. I was always much smaller than the people that I played with, up until about the end of ninth grade. It was then that I had finally hit my growth spurt and began to realize the potential that I had on the field.

My inspirations are the people that truly believed in me and what I could potentially do while playing the game of baseball. My first inspiration is my mother. The sacrifices that she has had to make the past few years for me to be able to have the opportunity I’ve had to play as a member of the LI Titans as well as helping my family keep food on the table as a widowed mother is something that I can never show her enough gratitude for. My other two biggest inspirations over the past year are the two Titans coaches that truly believed in me and my ability on the field. Coach Parsolano and Coach Giacomantonio. Both of these coaches were the first two that really showed me what I could do on the field and pushed me to be better in every aspect of my game. It wasn’t until I met these two that I realized that playing baseball at a higher level was a realistic future for myself.

My main goal for the future is to continue bettering myself academically, as well as on the baseball field. In doing so I would like to play baseball while also studying criminal justice in college. Finally, I plan to help lead the Centereach baseball team to its first playoff appearance since 2010.

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