When Life Throws You a Curve...

Former pro pitcher Will Rosellini has found a new career path at The SOM

By Will Pry


Will Rosellini's undergraduate choices about college were tailored to
further his baseball career.

His freshman year at Vanderbilt was frustrating because of both his
unfulfilling role on the team and its poor record on the field. He
transferred to Oklahoma State, where the thrill of going to the College
World Series was leveled by an injury, which he worked through after yet
another transfer - this time to the University of Dallas.

He recovered nicely and after his junior year, the Arizona Diamondbacks
picked him in the 16th round of the draft. Pro baseball - any American
kid's dream - was his future. After a couple of minor league seasons
pitching in such remote outposts as Missoula, Montana; Tucson, Arizona;
and Yakima, Washington, Mr. Rosellini returned to study at the University
of Dallas where he earned an undergraduate degree in economics. In August,
he finished work on an MBA and a master of science degree in accounting
and information management at The University of Texas at Dallas.

Now it's off to law school at Hofstra University, with summers spent
working toward another master's degree - this time in biotechnology. The
onetime can't-miss pitching prospect now has dreams of being an attorney
specializing in the biotech business.

"I still love the game; I still love being around it," he says. "But I
wanted to carve out something for the future."


Swallowing the hard pill

As a former pro athlete who never became a superstar, Mr. Rosellini is not
unique; for every Nolan Ryan, thousands of Will Rosellinis have to find
work outside the game. But Mr. Rosellini's recognition at a fairly young
age that he needed to prepare for life after sports does set him apart.
Given the high salaries and the mirage of invincibility that go along with
the big-league lifestyle, becoming an ex-player is a hard pill for some
athletes to swallow.

"Everyone thinks they're going to be a billionaire after being a
millionaire," says Robert Newhouse, director of player development for the
Dallas Cowboys. "Some of them go from being a millionaire to being
bankrupt, and they wonder, 'How do I get out of that?' I say, 'Stay in
school, and you'll find out.'"


From the locker room to the boardroom

UTD recognizes what athletes can gain from continuing their education, and
The School of Management, on invitation from the Cowboys organization, has
made a presentation to players to plant the seed in their minds that the
school can help them make the transition from the locker room to the
boardroom.

"We want to make sure they know we're an option," says Dr. Steve Perkins,
assistant dean for graduate programs. "We're not pushing; we're just
trying to make sure they know they've got that option."

It's important, Dean Perkins says, to recognize that UTD isn't recruiting
pro athletes for publicity; nor are the ones who enroll seeking special
treatment. The emphasis in continuing education is on the education.


Not just for athletes 

"The point is that people from a wide variety of different backgrounds and
different experiences can come back and do well in graduate school," Dean
Perkins says. "They're completely changing the direction they're going or
building on the experience they've got and going into a different career."

Will Rosellini, for example, developed an interest in biotechnology after
a semester in Dr. Joseph Picken's entrepreneurship course at UTD. He says
the course set him on a career path because it put class lessons into a
practical perspective. And - as in baseball - translating practice into
real life can be tricky, Mr. Rosellini says: "It's about being prepared to
go out there and fail five or 10 times before you have success."

But developing business sense can be as important to an athlete after his
career as physical conditioning is during it. The higher sports salaries
climb, the bigger the fall that awaits the ill-prepared retiree.

Mr. Newhouse speaks of ex-players who don't know how to pay taxes because
their agents handled all their finances. Mr. Rosellini talks about
ex-teammates desperate to cling to fading careers because there's nothing
else they're qualified to do.

That's where higher education comes in, Dean Perkins says; ex-athletes are
like students from any other walk of life when it comes to pursuing an
MBA.

Mr. Newhouse would be happy if the players he mentors would take notice,
even if it is to finish work on an undergraduate degree during the
off-season, as Emmitt Smith did at his alma mater, the University of
Florida. "If Emmitt Smith is smart enough to go back to school and get his
degree, I think a lot of people need to follow in his footsteps," he says.
"I certainly hope it's contagious."