Being a scholar-athlete at Florida Tech takes an incredible amount of hard work and dedication to excel both in the classroom and on the field.
Panther baseball player Danny Vassallo, a senior who is majoring in Biomedical Sciences, joins us for a new edition of Scholar-Athlete Spotlight. Vassallo, a right-handed pitcher from Lutz, Florida, has been a Swiss army knife for the pitching staff during his time in the Crimson and Gray. In Danny's first three seasons as a Panther, he's made 34 relief appearances and 12 starts, tallying a 12-8 record with four saves and a 3.78 ERA over 159 1/3 innings of work. Vassallo's 155 strikeouts are the most by any Florida Tech pitcher so far this decade. He was named to the Sunshine State Conference Commissioner's and Florida Tech Athletic Director's Honor Roll following his freshman campaign in 2021.
Danny joined us to talk about how he's made it all work and what he wants for a career.
Tell us a little bit about your major here at Florida Tech, what made you choose it?
I'm a biomedical science major here at Florida Tech, I've been one for the last four years. When I was a kid growing up, I've always known that I wanted to go the route of helping people I just didn't really know in what manner I was going to choose that in.
About four years ago when I committed to play baseball was when I really decided to dive into learning how the body works, and I did this for purposes of baseball. To be better at what I do on the field, but also just because my genuine interests lie around how all these compromised systems, whether it's your circulatory system or your digestive system, all these systems work together to create one big system which is what we know as us, you know, that human being that walks around every day and I just really find that super interesting. I find the whole concept of the human body and the way that it works super interesting and there's a lot of knowledge to be learned in that topic and that's why I chose that.
What do you want to do with that major once you've graduated?
My goal for my career is to become a physician, sooner or later, enter med school and do my residency to be a full-blown physician. My interest lies specifically around neuro and plastics at the moment, but I have my options open and I'm willing to obtain all different types of knowledge to further on make a decision on what I really want to hone in on and focus my career on.
What was it about Florida Tech that made you want to be here?
Well, my recruiting process wasn't the easiest as I wasn't tall, I wasn't big. I wasn't a recruit that was expected to come in immediately and make a difference. For me that was always a chip on my shoulder and drive that pushed me to get where I am.
When I came here for my visit, Coach Tam made this place feel like home, I met a few of the players who were here at the time. Raul Quintero, who's one of my coaches now, he was the first person I met when I came on campus and just made this place awesome for me.
I love the beach being right there. I was born and raised in Tampa, so I've never really been far from the beach and this was a very nice option for me. It made sense for my baseball career and my academic career and this is where I chose to go and I'm very glad that I did.
What's something from your classes that you didn't know about your major before?
I've learned that my major consists of a lot of exams and a lot of material. I honestly thought it was going to be a lot more hands-on work when I got into college, but now I have a better grasp and understanding of how the process works.
My four years here have mainly been preparing me for that in person work that I'm planning on doing in med school and further on in my career. My four years here have been more of a preparation for that and my fun stuff begins when I enter med school. I feel like the process is long and rigorous but it's long and rigorous for a reason. They're not just gonna let anybody work on patients or other people, so you need to be fully trained and have a well-rounded knowledge to be able to go into that field and be successful.
What are some things you need to get the most out of study time? Do you have a playlist or need to be by yourself in a room?
Well, I work very well individually, but I'm also a great communicator. As I've learned through baseball, you learn to communicate with different types of people and bond with different types of people as well. I'm very good in my own individual space if I need to be, I don't need the assistance of others to study and stay on track, but the assistance of them is very nice to have. It helps you succeed, and it helps you not feel the pressure that is all accumulated, you feel like you have a shoulder you can rely on, it's teamwork and working together for everybody to succeed, and that's the goal.
How has being a collegiate athlete prepared you for what you're doing now and what do you take from the field that you apply to your studies?
Oh man, I can give you so many different things there. But I'd have to say the one thing that baseball really has taught me and has given me the ability to do is to overcome adversity and thrive in situations where I'm not necessarily the most comfortable in.
This is because baseball has kind of a funny way of exposing people's weaknesses or putting them in situations where they're not necessarily the most comfortable in. Bottom of the ninth, two outs, bases loaded type situations. And honestly, baseball is a game of failure. So, any game that you're playing, that's a game of failure, failure is never easy to deal with.
I feel like the greatest athletes, the greatest people in the classroom, the greatest people in life, I feel like when they're put in situations that make them uncomfortable and they find a way to thrive regardless. That's something that I pride myself on very heavily. I expect myself to be able to execute regardless of the situation, excuses are just excuses. You've got to get the job done, regardless, in the classroom in life and on the field and that's really what it means to be a student-athlete here at this place.
What advice would you give to an athlete coming to Florida Tech that has an interest in Biomedical Sciences?
I've enjoyed the ride, it's long but it goes by quick. There are going to be days where it seems like those days are never ending, I will not lie to you. It's full of a bunch of four-hour labs, it's a lot of time and a lot of effort that you need to put in but the end goal, if you can just keep your eyes on the prize, that work will be worth it one day.
The effort that you put in, the knowledge that you gain, there's not many places where you can obtain knowledge like this in the world. This is your four years in college to enjoy it, to get the most out of it as possible and to be as successful as you can. At the end of the day, coming out of college, the most important thing is setting yourself up to be as successful as you possibly can in whatever your career decides to be. I feel like I'm on my way to setting myself up to be successful and hopefully, within the next couple of years I'll have a great path to whatever I'm planning on doing, whether that's being a physician or going somewhere else in the medical field, and I'll be successful in that.
