Two teammates from Corona del Sol High School’s state championship baseball team will soon be playing together for the Wildcats—the KSU Wildcats, that is. Ryan Moore and Tyler Giannonatti both have received athletic scholarships to Kansas State University.
“I chose Kansas State because of the opportunity to play at a higher level of competition, and the offer was too good to pass up,” said Moore.
“Plus, they recruited my high school teammate, Tyler Giannonatti, who I have played with since Little League.”
Moore is thinking his speed and work ethic will help him contribute right away to the team and is looking forward to his first year playing college ball.
“I know it will take a lot of hard work, but I’m looking forward to getting started,” said Moore. “I am not that nervous about it, just anxious to see what it is all about.”
Moore is currently leaning toward a degree in education.
“I think I may want to be a history or social studies teacher or professor,” said Moore.
Any concerns about going away to school?
“I am excited to live on my own but I’m not looking forward to doing my own laundry or cooking,” said Moore.
“But hopefully my buddy Tyler will be good at that.”
Moore and Giannonatti leave Arizona on Aug. 19 and start school Aug. 24.
“We also start intense workouts on the same day, Aug. 24,” said Moore. “I am ready to start my hectic and challenging first year of college. Playing college baseball is what I’m looking forward to the most.”
As to the speed that he says was among factors helping to boost his scholarship chances, Moore said in an interview with Wrangler News in June that workouts at south Tempe-based Fast Athlete improved his game and helped him increase his speed when the season started.
As to Giannonatti, he initially has set his sights on an accounting degree.
“I want to major in accounting but since I have to maintain a 3.5 GPA to keep my academic money, it may be tough,” he said. “So I’ll just have to see how that goes.”
Addressing his concerns about going away to school, Giannonatti said, “I’m excited but still nervous. I’m leaving my family and all my friends behind and I won’t get to see them for four months. It will be weird.”
In other scholarship news, Corona senior swimming and soccer athlete Julie Vande Berg has verbally committed to play soccer for the University of Wyoming starting in the fall of 2010.
“I went on an unofficial visit last fall and I just loved the campus,” said Vande Berg. “It’s a small, outdoors-centered town, and the weather is crazy.”
“UW is also a Division I university with an amazingly cool girls soccer head coach, Danny Sanchez, and assistant coach, Jason Green,” said Vande Berg. “They are very knowledgeable about the game and I felt they could teach me a lot and that I would get along great with them.”
Vande Berg is known for her physical play on Corona’s soccer team, which should help her contribute to the UW team right away.
“I think my height and strength, along with my ability to attack the ball in the air, should help me play on a college team,” said Vande Berg.
“Playing soccer at UW is an amazing opportunity for me,” said Vande Berg. “I have worked my whole life in sports. Traveling with the team is going to be lots of fun because we get to visit all the other schools in the conference and play on their fields.”
Vande Berg is excited about the possibility of going to school out of state.
“I have lived my whole life in Arizona,” said Vande Berg. “I’m very excited about the chance to learn about new surroundings and to find out who I am going to be as an adult.”
Vande Berg’s academic interests are in the math and science field, and she is thinking about majoring in nursing.
