Former Blue Waves baseball captain named captain of college team

From captain of the Riverhead Blue Waves baseball team to captain of the St. Lawrence Saints, 2010 Riverhead graduate Bryan Palermo reflects on his three years playing Division III college baseball and talks about his goals for his final season of college baseball in an interview with RiverheadLOCAL’s Michael Hejmej.

RL: To start, I’m going to ask a question that many athletes have trouble answering. What does baseball mean to you?

Palermo: “Baseball means a lot. I really love the sport. It’s a beautiful game. I’ve loved it ever since I was a kid playing tee-ball at 5 years old. I love just going out there and being able to compete to be honest. And to be able to play it at the collegiate level, really brings out the competitive nature in me. And also being part of a team really enhances the college experience. Because right when you step onto campus you have 24 friends instantly. It makes you feel like you’re part of a family.”

RL: Did you have a chance to go elsewhere? Why did you settle on St. Lawrence?

Palermo: “Yeah I did actually. I spoke with a bunch of coaches. St. Lawrence wasn’t really on my list at all at first. And I was like ‘why would I want to go upstate N.Y. to play baseball.’ I wanted to go down south where it was warm and play. But the assistant coach at St. Lawrence, who isn’t here anymore, kept calling me and showed great interest and my parents kept telling me, don’t burn any bridges. Just keep talking to him and see what he
has to say and he eventually convinced me to come up for a visit for a day on the weekend. So we made the 8-hour trip up and literally, as soon as I stepped foot on campus I said, ‘This is where I want to go to school.’ It had the right college feel.”

RL: St. Lawrence is a D-III school which disqualifies you from receiving an athletic scholarship. Did you consider any D-II or D-I schools?

Palermo: “I had spoken with some D-I schools when I was a senior in high school. But I was kind of on the smaller side I would say and I think they’re really big on size and a lot of the coaches I talked to told me ‘you could come here but you’re probably not going to play until you’re a junior.’ And that wasn’t really what I wanted to do. I finished 7th in my graduating class at Riverhead so St. Lawrence offered me a large academic scholarship that basically served as an athletic scholarship anyway. So although I knew I could play at a higher level, playing right away at D-III sounded more appealing and I’m happy with the decision I made.”

RL: Bring us right into your first season at St.Lawrence. How well did you transition from high school to college?

Palermo: “I really enjoyed the transition. I think that speaks a lot about St.Lawrence in how St. Lawrence is a very campus-oriented school so everything that goes on is usually on campus. That I think made it easier and it’s a very close-knit community. There’s only like 2,500 students at the school. So right away, I had a bunch of friends from the baseball team, like I said before, and that definitely made it easier; I didn’t have to find my own group of friends and fit right in right away.”

RL: The first year you played with them, it seems like you had instant success. You hit over .300 and was named first team All-Liberty League at second base. To do that as a freshman is almost unheard of. To what do you attribute your success?

Palermo: “Definitely hard work. I think that my hard work has paved the way to where I am now and I think that’s why I was named captain this year. You said instant success but I actually didn’t start right away. Freshman year, we went down on this spring break trip, I didn’t start. I was really discouraged at first but I kinda knew that was going to happen. The older guys get the first chance to prove themselves and we had a new coach that year; so I wasn’t too worried about it because I knew when I did get my chance, I would perform. But it wasn’t until our last day on the spring break trip that I got my first start. I did pretty well; I got a couple of hits and a couple nice plays. And I thought I was sitting pretty going into the next weekend but I wasn’t on the lineup card the next game which really discouraged me again. But in that game, one of the infielders had a pretty rough day and coach put me in the next game and I’ve been playing ever since. We ended up making the playoffs that year and we won the first playoff game in a bunch of years for the school. So that was a lot of fun.”

RL: So 2012, your sophomore year, must’ve been your best season, right? You hit .362! What was going through your head? You must’ve been ripping the cover off the ball.

Palermo: “I think we just really clicked as a team. We set the school record for wins that year which is really cool. We were really playing with a lot of confidence as a team. We all had success. It wasn’t just me. We ended up winning the league that year and had a little lapse in the playoffs, which is unfortunate, because it was one of the most successful seasons in school history. I hit lead-off that year. My freshman year, I hit in the no. 2 spot and I got moved to the lead-off spot. My stolen bases went up and I scored a ton of runs. I think I scored like 57 runs.”

RL: What were the playoffs like that year? You said there was a little lapse. Can you elaborate?

Palermo: “We hosted the tournament so it was really exciting. Playing in front of our fans at school was fun. It was nice because we didn’t have to travel at all. We won the first three games of the tournament and I don’t know, I think we may have let up a little bit and kind of ran out of pitching. But we ended up losing two games in a row to lose the championship, which would have brought us to the Division III regionals. That was really devastating. When we lost that final championship game, it was the most devastating point of my baseball career. I’ve never felt that emotional after a loss. All we had to do was beat that team once.”

RL: Your junior season, your stats dropped a bit. You hit under .300 for the first time. Was there something that happened that affected your play?

Palermo: “I didn’t have as good a junior year as my sophomore year. I was sick a few times and I think as a team, we put too much pressure on ourselves. We were supposed to just walk through everybody and we were supposed to be the best team. I think that hurt our performance. When we started struggling, we put more pressure on ourselves and created a ripple effect on the whole team. I ended up breaking my finger with a couple weeks left in the season and I knew playoffs were coming up and I didn’t want to call it a season. So I missed a few games and I went to the doctor five days after it happened and just had him clear me. I played the rest of the season with a broken finger, so that was tough, but I gave my best shot. We didn’t have the year we all would have liked but I’m excited for this year’s team.”

RL: What are your goals as you enter your final season of college ball?

Palermo: “Simple. Win the league championship and play in the regionals.”

RL: Why do you think you were named captain?

Palermo: “I think I was named captain because of how hard I worked and how hard I played. I made my name as a baseball player by always playing hard, giving 100 percent, diving every chance I get, and always running out ground balls hard. I think my best leadership is through example.”

RL: What are your plans after you graduate? Are you trying to keep playing baseball? Are you giving up on baseball?

Palermo: “I’m definitely not giving up on baseball. I played in the Hamptons league a few years ago and I did pretty well in that league I think. And that proved to me that I could play at a higher level. If the opportunity comes, I would pursue it.”

RL: What’s your advice for kids who want to pursue baseball?

Palermo: “You never know who’s watching you. So you should always give it 100 percent no matter what. Never take your foot off the gas. If you have a bad game, don’t let it affect you. You have to put it behind you. You should always play every game like it’s your last.”

RL:  What’s the biggest difference between the freshman Bryan Palermo and Bryan the senior?

Palermo: “Experience. I know how to handle certain situations now. You play a team four times in a weekend and they might figure out how to pitch to you. But you can always change your approach at the plate to counter it. If they got you out on a fastball away, you can close your stance a little bit and shoot the ball the other way. If they got me out with a curve ball, I might sit curve ball first pitch. You might have success right away but people will eventually figure you out so you have to keep getting better. And I think last year, struggling a little bit, will help me moving forward this year. Just knowing that this is my final collegiate baseball season, I’m going to give it my all.”

RL: Lastly, I don’t think many people understand what goes into preparing for a collegiate season to ensure success. What’s your routine? How do you get prepared?

Palermo: “You always have to be in good shape. Off-season lifting is big. I put on a lot of weight this year which I think is good. I’ve added a lot of muscle. Last season I weighed about 175 on a good day. I’m going into this season weighing 195 so I’m really excited about how I feel and I’m looking forward to stepping on the diamond.”

Palermo has been named to the all-academic and all-league Liberty team every season thus far. He’s a physics major and plans to become a physics teacher when his baseball career comes to an end.