Jason Prezant and Michael Pansini are two athletes playing Division I sports in the fall. The Trailblazer sat down with the seniors to interview them on their future plans as both an athlete and a student.

TB: First off, congratulations on your recruitment to play tennis and golf! Where are you playing next year?
JP: I’ll be playing DI tennis at Monmouth University.

MP: I’m going to Mount St. Mary’s University.

TB: When did the two of you start playing your respective sports?
JP: I started playing tennis at the age of three. By the time I was eight I had already started playing competitive tennis by doing tournaments on the weekends.

MP: I started playing seriously by the end of the eighth grade.

TB: Mike, what was the most challenging part about playing a varsity sport?

MP: Playing golf for a team can be very frustrating because having one bad round in a tournament can mean a loss for the whole team. Since we aren’t just playing for ourselves, you have to try and make every shot count and not let one bad hole get the best of you.

TB: And Jason, what do you look forward to about playing at a college level? Is there anything you fear of about being a college athlete?
JP: Playing tennis at Monmouth gives me everything in the world to look forward to. My teammates will become my new friends, and I will be able to celebrate with them when we pull off a win. I have learned very much from Coach Ganz and my entire Pascack Hills tennis team over the years, and I look forward to working with my new team and coach at Monmouth. Tennis will take a large part of my time from my schedule, so a new challenge of mine will be to learn how to balance playing varsity tennis and my schoolwork.

TB: What do the two of you aspire to do after college?
JP: I am unsure what I want to do after college, but I am planning on majoring in business at Monmouth with additional courses in health sciences. Regardless of what I do, I plan on keeping tennis a major part of my life by playing or coaching in my free time.

MP: I aspire to eventually be a golf instructor.

TB: Good luck to both of you!