Roberto “Berto” Carselle
Olentangy 18 Senior
3.95 (National Honor Society) Baseball
Illinois Institute of Technology. Will major in mechanical engineering and play baseball
How did you narrow your college choice?
My sophomore year, I visited colleges and baseball came into the picture a little bit. Ohio State was a huge option for engineering, but I didn’t know if I was good enough to play baseball there. I got into Rose Hulman, but Illinois Tech became interested. It’s a Division III school. I had a great visit with the coach. I’m attracted by the city life — the campus is a two-minute walk from where the White Sox play. I will live in a dorm. There are 4,000 to 5,000 students.
You must be a whiz in math and science, right?
I’m not bragging, but I am good at both. I changed the car’s oil with my dad (smiling), but I’m not very handy. I do have the curiosity. I used to go to Mid-Ohio with my father for LeMans cars. My dad is huge into Audi engineering and we’d go to the Audi booth and meet the drivers. I used to have this Formula 1 game on my computer and I always was Michael Schumacher.
How did you get involved in skiing?
It has been that way all of my life. I love Mad River. That’s where I started. But skiing out West, it is such a different level. I have a Go Pro when I go on runs that is clipped on to my helmet. I record each run and wind up editing and putting the best runs together on the plane ride home. We’ll hook up the TV and watch one of my wipeouts or somebody else’s wipeouts. I also will grade my runs. During the summer I wake board on the water. We have a boat. Where do you ski? We’ve gone to Deer Valley, which is near the Sundance Film Festival in Utah. We’ve been to Solitude, Utah, and Beavercreek, Colorado. The biggest mountain when I was little was in Snowshoe, West Virginia. I have ski vests from when I was younger with layers and layers of lift tags. I just got new skis for Christmas. I got wider skis because they help you go faster — ride on top of the powder — and cut deeper. Are you in any clubs? I’m co-president of Service Club. I’ve been an officer since sophomore year. My neighbor, Linda Shank, is director. Our best-known project is Trick or Treat for Cans. We get 100 to 150 students and give them neighborhood routes. There will be one parent driving and three students picking up bags of canned goods left on doorsteps. This past year we got 3,000 to 4,000 pounds of food that filled four pickup trucks. We’ve been honored by the Delaware County Foundation for our service.
You are a football cheerleader?
I was a section leader at football games. I would yell the chants, and that was awesome. We would come up with what color (baking) flour we would throw in the air (for touchdowns). I had a lot of fun with that. It’s all part of school spirit, supporting the players who are my friends. Who is in your family? My brother, Carlos, is an eighth-grader. My dad is Rob and my mom is Sara. My mom is the reason I got into service. She used to do Meals on Wheels and is a former gymnastics teacher. She works as a dining room hostess at the senior citizens rec center at Glen Ross Golf Course. My dad owns First Tracks Technology. He’s an IT guy. He also is a role model in my life.
“We improved; we still have a long way to go,” Schiano said. “We have a lot of young players back there that are learning how to play in the secondary.”
The Buckeyes had the luxury of rolling three corners through the lineup last year to keep players on the field fresh, and that would be the aim again this year, Schiano said.
“I could see that happening again this year, but it really depends on the development of our corners and how they do,” he said. “One of the guys who is new to us is Kendall Sheffield (a former Alabama signee in 2015). He’s a little bit older, so he’s not a rookie, but he does have to learn our way of doing things. So we’re very, very hopeful that between our incoming guys and our guys that are here that we will be able to have that rotation.”