Manzi steps up to lead Xaverian to the CHSAA semifinals
Xaverian didn’t expect Jeffrey Manzi to have a huge impact on this year’s team. Xaverian wasn’t even expected to have a big season. After it lost 17 seniors from last year’s squad, the word “rebuilding” was thrown around.
When a pitcher, who was expected to be the No. 3 starter going into the year, becomes one of the hardest-working players on the team unexpected things start to happen.
Manzi is not fortunate enough to hail from Brooklyn. He’s from Queens. However, every single day he wakes up early and travels over an hour to Bay Ridge for 7:00 a.m. practices. Once he’s there, he isn’t just going through the motions and instead is one of the hardest working players on the team. As one of just seven seniors, he feels compelled.
“I’m very proud of him,” said Xaverian’s manager Frank Del George. “He works very hard, he lives out in Queens and comes into Brooklyn every morning for 7:00 a.m. practices and works very hard while we’re here; you just don’t see that from a lot of kids.”