Brendan Albert '20 Recruiting Profile

I love the game of baseball.  I’ve played and competed all my life.   The competition has always excited me and I cherish the many lasting friendships  I’ve made.  

The summer prior to starting my freshman year threw me a curve ball,  one I never in my life expected.  I mysteriously started to lose large patches of my hair.  I quickly lost 95% of it.  A short time thereafter I was diagnosed with Alopeica Areata, an autoimmune disorder in which the white blood cells attack the air follicles.   I was the one in a quarter million people to receive such a diagnosis.

Having Alopecia has left scars that will never fully heal.  While the hair on your head vanishes, so does your feeling of self worth.  Walking into a new school your freshman year is normally uncomfortable, even worse with nothing but a baseball cap to protect you from countless stares and the myriad questions.  Of course, my cap, my impenetrable defense, didn't work well when a few older students decided to play “keep away” with it.  The resulting depression and anxiety was nothing that I ever imagined.  If it weren't for my father I don't know where I'd be right now.   His research  and time yielded an experimental drug which miraculously has suppressed my immune system sufficient enough to allow for regrowth.  My hair has returned back to a point where I no longer have to endure the self loathing.  I feel forever grateful for his efforts and will never fully repay him.  But I know when I hold up that championship trophy or when I walk down the aisle with diploma in hand, I'll be one step closer.  Payback in my mind is focused, hard work in school (as I recover from my freshman year academics), on the field and in the gym lifting till I'm blue in the face.  He supported me when I most needed it, now, with my renewed confidence I’m making every effort to play and compete at the collegiate level.