Mark Faello was never lacking in ambition.
When he was 10-years-old he approached Hofstra Head Coach John Russo and asked if he was good enough to play there.
Fast forward six years and Russo was competing with all the other local schools–plus some of his CAA rivals–to get a verbal commitment from the Plainview-JFK ace.
Fortunately, Faello had never wavered in his desire to attend Hofstra.
“It was my dream school,” said the right-handed pitcher. “I love how big the campus is and when I visited, I said, ‘how can any school top this?”
Despite getting interest from several other schools, he committed on Aug. 1, after a dominant season on the mound.
He went 3-1 with a 0.24 ERA and 3 no-decisions over 35.1 innings.
The Hawks had a successful season, finishing 13-8, before having their hopes dashed in the quarterfinals by the eventual-champion East Meadow Jets.
Faello noted that both games were winnable, and the difference in the elimination-game was a moonshot home run by LIU Post-commit Zach Fritz that he estimates went over 450 feet.
He is extremely confident that 2017 will be even better for them.
They have a potentially-dominant pitching rotation comprised of him, Tyler Marinaccio and Justin Kimmel. He and Kimmel were named All-County while Marinaccio was named All-Conference.
Faello is a confident player. He noted that it is important to have that mentality in this game.
“I’m not afraid of anyone,” he said. “I don’t care how big you are, I will go right after you. I attack the zone,” he added. Unsurprisingly, he stated that his favorite pitcher in the MLB is Noah Syndergaard due to “how the ball jumps out of his hand”.
With a fastball that was sitting 87-88 MPH as a sophomore, he can certainly blow his fastball by most high school hitters. He has been working seven days per week to improve all aspects of his game. He goes to a pitching coach, hitting coach, speed & agility coach and has a personal trainer.
Mike Trout photographed for BodyArmor sports drink by Monte Isom
His goal is to hit 90 MPH this year and he is sure that he will accomplish that.
This will be his third season on varsity, after getting called up by Head Coach John Givargidze as a ninth grader. He stated that while he was called up to pitch, his Head Coach showed confidence in him to play third base.
“He is very supportive,” Faello said of Givargidze. “He’s just a great guy and a great coach.”
The No. 1 influential figure in his life has been his father, he said. He noted that his father was a talented ballplayer but lacked the coaching to get to the next level. He spent a countless amount of hours with him to teach Mark how to play the game, often taking him to the field and hitting ground balls to him.
“If it weren’t for him, I wouldn’t be where I am today.”
Mark’s parents were a major reason he chose to stay on Long Island, noting that they will only have a half-hour drive to get to his games at Hofstra.
Who would’ve thought that 10-year-old Mark would prove to be prophetic when he asked Coach Russo about playing for Hofstra?
