Ryan Balseca '24 Recruiting Profile

When I was younger I knew I wanted to do a sport and become an athlete. I went from playing baseball at the age of 6 to trying basketball at the age of 8, but I felt no sport was a good fit for me. After I tried basketball I was introduced to soccer by a good friend, and have been playing that since, but was cut from varsity in my junior year of high school. I was devastated, but wanted to keep busy by trying a winter sport. I decided to try track to keep busy. My first day of practice I saw people throwing shot put and was very intrigued. I asked my current throws coach if he could teach me to throw. I initially felt very behind as many of the other throwers had been doing it for years, but I still was very eager to learn. I fell in love with throwing and love how at practice you can see that there are good days, bad days, and continuous improvement throughout the seasons. I had ended the winter season throwing around 29 feet, and dropped tennis to continue throwing in the spring with a personal best of 37 feet 2.5 inches. Although getting cut from the soccer team was devastating in the moment, I believe it was one of the best things to have happened for me in high school. I was introduced to a sport that I truly love through this and am very grateful that I was.