Joey Milto
Eighteen-year-old Joey Milto lives in Eagle Trace with his parents, Phil and Tricia, his brother, PJ, and his two dogs, Lily and Daisy. He graduated from Roncalli High School in May.
What is your favorite part of going to school?
Being able to socialize with my friends.
What are your plans after high school?
I will be attending Bellarmine University, where I will be studying finance, and I will be playing on the Bellarmine baseball team.
What sports and/or extracurricular activities do you participate in?
In high school, I played football and baseball.
How did you become involved with your sport?
I first got involved in sports because I have been surrounded by them my whole life. All of my siblings played sports, and so I wanted to follow in their footsteps like any other little brother. Our family had a love for football, so I started to play that as soon as my mom let me. However, once I tried baseball, I fell in love with it since my first tee-ball games. My dad got me into baseball, but once I started playing, I never could stop.
What, in general, do you enjoy about your sport?
What I enjoy about baseball is all the friendships I have made throughout the years of playing. In these many years of playing, I have met many new people and friends that will be with me for the rest of my life. I also like the challenge of baseball. It is a very difficult sport that requires more than just the normal traits. It doesn’t matter how fast or strong you are. If you can’t hit the baseball, you can’t play.
Tell us about your achievements and any highlights or favorite moments of your experience so far in your sport:
- I recently hit a grand slam, which helped my team win.
- I won a lot of tournaments when I was younger.
- I am a three-year varsity baseball player.
- I am a captain of the baseball team.
- We won state in football in 2020.
- I received the baseball legacy award, which I got to pass down to a future baseball player.
- I maintained a 4.3 GPA.
What is the one thing that sets you apart in your sport?
One thing that sets me apart is my work ethic. I am willing to outwork anyone and enjoy putting in the time and effort it takes to get better at baseball. I love working out every day to get better and to help me achieve my goal of playing baseball in college, which I will be doing.
How do you keep a balance between sports, school, and other activities in your life? Can you give some advice to others on how to maintain a good life balance?
For me to keep a balance between sports and school, it requires me to have a routine. I go to school and have to go to practice after school. Once I am done with practice, I come home and shower and get my homework done and go to bed. This routine allows me to keep myself on track and allows me to get done everything I need to get done with school.
My advice to others would be to have priorities and understand what you value in life. To me, I understood that I needed to do well in school, so I made sure I had time to get my homework done after practices. I did this before anything else to make sure I stayed on top of myself and focused on the things that I valued: Baseball and school. However, this was just during the week. On the weekends when I didn’t have school, I would spend time with friends to ensure I still had a life outside of baseball and school.
Who is someone you admire? What makes them special, and how have they motivated you?
I admire my dad. What makes him special is how motivated he is. His motivation and drive to accomplish things on a daily basis have instilled a great work ethic in me. By seeing his drive, it motivates me to want to do great things with the time I have and not waste it. He has taught me to value my time and use it to get better rather than waste it and let life pass me by.