It’s always been about math and soccer for Richmond Community High School senior Marcello Balboa. He began playing soccer when he was three years old. He says he didn’t like it at first, rx but it began to grow on him as he got older. “It’s been a big part of my life. I enjoy soccer to the fullest. I’m in love with the sport. It’s a great way for me to relieve stress, cialis and it brings out the competitive edge in me.”
Marcello is very involved in soccer. He has been playing varsity for his zone school, here Thomas Jefferson High School, since he was a freshman, where he’s also been serving as the captain since his sophomore year. He is also a member of the Richmond Kickers’ club soccer team and coaches the team’s 6 and under recreational team. “It’s (coaching) is an awesome experience. Being around the kids, it’s like the energy they have fuels you,” Marcello said. “To be able to look at these kids and to have the responsibility to teach them the baby steps is amazing. It shows me where I used to be.”
These leadership skills and ambition also translate into his passion for math. His father, Maximo Balboa, kept the young Marcello home instead of sending him to pre-school. It was here, as a 5-year-old, that Marcello began learning complex math. “I learned addition, subtraction, multiplication and division when I was 5 years old. It stuck with me and has been a fascination with me since then.”
As he grew older, Marcello said he even began to teach himself math in elementary school. When his older brother was in sixth grade, and he was in fourth grade, Marcello said he borrowed his brother’s workbook and began doing the problems. “I essentially learned sixth grade math. I was teaching myself exponents, long-division, harder multiplication problems when I was in fourth grade just because I had an interest in it.”
With these two passions, Marcello hopes to go to the next level with both. His top three choices for college are University of Virginia, University of Pennsylvania and Virginia Commonwealth University. All of these schools offer his major of interest, engineering, and his beloved soccer as both a Division 1 sport and club. If he is unable to get a Division 1 scholarship to the university of his choice, Marcello said he would play club or intramurals. In the area of math, he said he plans to major in engineering. Though he is not sure whether or not he’ll be going for computer or electrical engineering, he does know he’ll have fun with it.
Marcello said he owes his love for math and soccer to his father, Maximo. “Without a doubt, my father is my biggest inspiration. He’s motivated me since day one,” Marcello said. “He played soccer before and he’s an engineer. So, I’d say I have first-hand experience of what he went through translating into what I’m going through and he’s helping me, pushing me forward and definitely pushing me in the right direction.”
