Positive PEOPLE in Pinecrest- Alex Hartnett

Positive PEOPLE in Pinecrest- Alex Hartnett
Positive PEOPLE in Pinecrest- Alex Hartnett
Alex Hartnett

Coral Reef High School senior Alex Hartnett inherited his love of sports from his father, who played professional baseball. Hartnett plays both baseball and golf for Coral Reef.

When Hartnett was younger, his dad introduced him to baseball. But soon after, Hartnett says his dad told him he could make his own choices about which sport to play. He says he plays baseball now because he wants to.

“I’ve fallen in love with the game,” Hartnett says. “Alot of my community service project is in my passion — baseball.”

Hartnett is the second seed for the golf team and he is also the team captain. Because of the talent on the team, Hartnett is expecting the team to do well in the playoffs.

“Districts is usually a breeze — thee out of the top nine or10 move on,” he says. “We always make it through districts. Regionals is where we have always struggled. Last year we had a senior who moved on individually. We are hoping this year is our year. I think we have a shot.”

Hartnett says he enjoys playing golf as well as baseball.

“There is nothing better than hitting a pure golf shot,” he says, adding that “hitting a game winner is “a close call to hitting a pure perfect golf shot.” His dream is to play baseball in college at an Ivy League school. If that doesn’t work out, he would be happy playing at a Division III school. He has decided against trying to play golf in college.

“I hope to get into a high academic school,” he says

Hartnett remains undecided about a major course of study in college, though he says it could be engineering or business. Both involve his favorite subject — mathematics.

“I love math and I loved calculus; I got an 800 on the Math SAT,” he says. “It’s just something I like. It comes easy.”

Hartnett intends to apply for entrance to as many as 15 colleges. His dream school is Stanford, though it would be hard to play baseball there.

He intends to apply to four Ivy League schools and several liberal arts colleges.

Colleges should be interested in him. His academic credentials are outstanding and he has been involved in a variety of community service projects. He has collected used baseball equipment for Patriots Outreach. The organization sends the equipment to areas where kids love the game, but can’t afford to buy their own bats, balls and gloves. He has also coached at a baseball summer camp for three years.

“That was actually a really good experience,” he says. “I was able to bond with the kids. I taught them how to play, how to be better teammates, and coached defense and hitting skills. I took some pride in that.”

Hartnett says they all started out trying to be the top player, wanting to be the first to hit, to be the pitcher and be the center of attention. He says he was able to help them learn how to get along, how to share and how to cooperate as a team.

“I met some cool kids who actually grasped the concept of what being a good teammates was,” he says.

At Coral Reef, Hartnett is a member of the National Honor Society, TSA, the engineering club; and Future Business Leaders of America. He plans to enter the FBLA competition this year.

He is in the engineering program and earned third-place recognition in an engineering competition for water tower designs. He also participated in a competitions to design and build an efficient bridge.

— By Linda Rodriguez Bernfeld


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