Nicholas Ballenger '15 Recruiting Profile

            My name is Nicholas Ballenger, I’m a 20 year-old with a Sophomore academic standing at Oregon State University, my athletic status however, is that I’m a redshirt freshman. I have spent the last two years at Oregon State improving my craft in the sport of soccer. Throughout that time, I have made unbreakable bonds with teammates, learned many lessons from my coaching staff, and made memories that I will never forget. Over these past two years, however, I have had to endure quite a bit of adversity. In the beginning of our spring season, after redshirting the fall season of the 2015-16 academic year, I broke my foot and spent the following four months doing rehab and lifting while trying to recover from my injury. Once I was fully recovered and cleared to play, one of my best friends, former teammate, and someone who I considered a brother passed away, which was another major setback mentally. I have battled and pushed through both of these obstacles and have found that I have learned to use trials of adversity to better understand my own wellbeing. By learning how to manage my wellbeing, I have learned how to filter what is and isn’t important enough to stress about so that I can keep my stress levels to a minimum and keep as clear a head as possible. By doing this, I have significantly improved my ability to play the mental side of the game, as well as my patience. This newly found understanding has helped me to improve myself, both as a student-athlete, and as a human being.

            I’m looking to transfer because I am unhappy with the amount of playing time I have received. Though I have valued my time at Oregon State, and the lessons that I have learned there, I feel as though it is time to seek out a new opportunity. I’m looking for a school that holds an opportunity for me with an open roster spot, one that has prestigious academics, and one that offers the degrees that I am studying, which are Spanish and Business. I have excelled in both athletics and academics throughout my life, but that is not to say that my successes haven’t come without obstacles. I have always valued an education, as much, if not more than athletics, but that education has come with its challenges. In the summer going into my Junior year of high school, I joined the Portland Timbers Academy, who’s training schedule proved to entail quite the time demand. Our training schedule included an hour and a half drive to and from training every night, with about a two-and-a-half-hour training block. With that being said, training didn’t start until 8PM, thus I didn’t get home until close to midnight each night. This in combination with all AP and Honors courses forced me how to improve my time management skills, which has proven to be a major factor in my academic success today. My 3.96 high school GPA translated into a 3.83 collegiate GPA. I strongly value and take pride in my academic achievements and I feel as though they reflect my diligence, work ethic, responsibility, and discipline, all things that directly transfer over to the soccer pitch. Professionalism is something that I value, and I believe any one of my references would agree with that. I am excited to continue playing the game that I love, and I’m looking forward to a new challenge and a new environment in which to further my journey.