Catching Up With The Original New York Family

January 14, 2016

Charlie Karstedt
Assistant Director, New York

We’ve had some great young student athletes come through the PBR network since it’s inception (summer of 2014) in New York State and thought It would be great to see where those athletes are now.

Periodically, we’re going to catch up with some of these guys for a brief Q & A session to see how things have been going since we saw them last. All of these players are guys who benefited at some point from the PBR network or events within its first two years of existence.

For the first installment we decided to sit down with Cameron Ringo. A 2015 Graduate from the Buffalo area, and former Western New York Player of the Year Cameron is in his first year at Division 1 Binghamton University.

Name: Cameron Ringo
High School: Hamburg
State Rank (2015): 40

Current College: Binghamton

High School Honors

+ Earned 4 varsity letters in baseball
+ Named first team all New York state as a senior
+ As a team captain in 2015 lead his team to the Class A State Semi-Finals
+ Received 2014 Army National Guard Reserve Scholar Athlete Award
+ 2015 ECIC II Player of the year and first team pitcher
+ Two-time ECIC II first team player
+ 2015 all WNY player of the year

PBR: So how has your college experience been so far ?

Ringo: It's been going fantastic. Life is good at Binghamton and the first semester went a lot smoother than I anticipated honestly.

PBR: What have been the biggest changes or adjustments since moving away to college?

Ringo: The biggest difference I found was just eating. My class schedule was spaced throughout the day/night and how it lined up with dining hall/ marketplace hours, I never always had a normal eating time I just had to fit it in whenever I got the chance.

PBR: What are you majoring in at Binghamton; and what is your dream job after Binghamton ?

Ringo: I am currently majoring in Mechanical Engineering and the intent is to get a job with designing automobiles. My dream job is to play ball for a living once I graduate.

PBR: Tell us what it’s like being a Division 1 Student Athlete. Is it what you expected or have you been surprised by anything ?

Ringo: As a D1 Student Athlete, there are expectations of you to be able to handle and be accountable for yourself. Everything you do is going to either help or hurt your team so you have to make sure you're always putting them first, and that includes getting work done and going to class. I'm very surprised with the amount of resources there are to help you as a Student Athlete as well. If you have an issue there is always someone you can find there that can help you resolve it and I'm very fortunate for that.

PBR: Can you give us some background on how PBR New York helped you get to Binghamton?

Ringo: I went to my first PBR event at North Collins HS and it helped my name become known a little better, and I got invited to your guys' next showcase/ PBR Top Prospect Games down at St. Bonaventure. All of the scouts were sitting up behind home plate taking notes on us the whole day, between the workout and game so they had a pretty decent idea of who we were as ball players by the end of it. The next day I get a call from Coach Hurba here at Binghamton and then it just played out from there.

PBR: What advice do you have for current High School players hoping to get where you are now?

Ringo: Never stop working to get better and always compete out there. A strong mentality will take you a long way.

PBR: What’s the best advice you were ever given throughout your baseball career before getting to Binghamton?

Ringo: Pretty much what I said earlier, every thing you do has either a positive or negative impact. Whether it's your actions, your words or your attitude, on or off the field it will always help or hurt your team. This game isn't about you. Even if you're having an awful game, staying up and positive to everyone else can still be enough to make the difference. This game to me is 95% mental if you can dominate the mentality, you can control the game.

PBR: What is the best food at the Dining Halls at Binghamton?

Ringo: That's honestly a tough one because it's hard to pick what's the favorite meal. One thing I love at the dining halls is just getting some chocolate chip pancakes. I'm not sure what they do to those things, but they are always spot on. My favorite dinner food I'd have to say is the lamb over a rice they make, it's pretty phenomenal.

PBR: What’s the best part about dorm life?

Ringo: The best part is just there's always people there to hang around with. Living with five other people can be hectic sometimes, but I love it. There's always something going on and you get close with neighbors and people around you as well.

PBR: What’s the worst part about dorm life?

Ringo: The worst part about dorm life is probably just the freedom. We have fire safety inspections that we always fail because we have flags hanging all over our rooms and they aren't treated and it's a pain sometimes but there really isn't too much downside to it. Maybe a comfier couch would be nice.