(Editor’s Note: Stevie Proko is a hard-throwing RHP entering his senior year at Locust Valley. Prior to committing to LIU Post this past weekend, he was one of the best remaining available players in the 2019 class. The following words are his own…)
From a young age, I have always loved the game of baseball and always had a dream of playing at the next level. On Friday August 17th my family and I agreed that it was the right decision for me to commit to LIU Post.
I believe that the recruiting process starts early with getting high grades in high school because I live in a household where my parents couldn’t stress that enough on me. My college recruiting process all started when I sat down with my high school coach John Lonardo, who was the former head coach at SUNY Old Westbury and told him I was serious about playing at the college level. I was fortunate enough to have somebody who understood the whole process himself both from a coach’s perspective and also as a player’s perspective. It started with emailing colleges just to get my name and game schedule out there to the coaches.
Towards the middle part of my summer season where we were almost at the end of it, I still had no offers from any colleges and then my coaches Bill O’Connor, Matt Tringali and also John Lonardo started making calls to colleges to have them come down and watch me pitch. During this time period I started to get noticed and recognized more because I was pitching extremely well. I started to receive multiple texts and calls from colleges asking me to come for a visit and for my transcript. LIU Post happened to be one of these schools. Coach Mike Gaffney came down to watch me pitch a couple of times and ended up asking me to come down and visit the campus.
Driving through the school to get to the Pratt Center I saw myself coming here for the next four years. I was greeted by Coach Gaffney in the tremendous athletic center that LIU Post has and from there he proceeded to show me the baseball field and around the campus. I immediately fell in love with the field because it is a beautiful dirt field and also it is a fairly large park and as a pitcher; what more could you ask for? The campus was beautiful and it is considered the largest of the Long Island University system, which fit my style. Coach Gaffney proceeded to show me the business program which I was interested in majoring in. I felt like it was a place I could call home.
I went back into the school on Friday August 17th. After hearing my offer, I knew it was something I could not pass up on and it was where I wanted to be for the next four years definitely. Later that day my family and I decided that LIU Post was the best fit for my academic and athletic career. I gave Coach Gaffney a call and told him I would be honored to play for him and wanted to become a pioneer.
I want to end off by saying thank you to my coaches Bill O’Connor, Matt Tringali and John Lonardo for creating this opportunity for me, never giving up on me, teaching me to play the game the right way like a gentlemen, and doing the absolute most for me. I want to thank my family and all my teammates for doing the same thing as well and having my back no matter what the circumstance or situation was. GO PIONEERS!
