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| Nick Sotiros is wrapping up his baseball career at some point this week and looking forward to his accounting career. By Kylie Bridenhagen, d3photography.com |
By Austin Walther
D3sports.com
GRAND CHUTE, Wis. -- North Central first baseman Nick Sotiros is concluding his baseball career at the World Series, but his next career is just starting.
The senior, a D3baseball.com first team All-American, has already graduated with a bachelor’s degree in accounting and has just completed an MBA at North Central. Sotiros is also in the process of getting his licensing to become a certified public accountant, having completed one of the four parts.
“You have to study 25-30 a week, plus classes and workouts,” Sotiros said. “It’s tough, but I used our break from school to study a lot during that. It’s not an easy test. I put in a lot of work in for that and I’m happy that I passed it.”
Being this far into his future after baseball while putting up impressive numbers and getting to Appleton can be difficult, but Sotiros has been able to manage time for both.
“The biggest thing was just, I wanted to keep playing baseball at the highest level,” Sotiros said. “Obviously, this is it for my baseball career, so I had to also focus on academics and it’s a lot of time management skills went into it. I found a way to get everything done.”
Finding a way to get things done. It sounds cliché, but it’s what worked.
“I think just being smart with my time, using my time wisely,” Sotiros said. “Understanding that if I plan my days right, there’s enough time.”
At the Division III level the student-athlete is stressed a lot. Sotiros also said the same thing is talked about quite a bit at North Central with coaches and the professors.
“Our coaches put a high emphasis on academics, student athletics,” Sotiros said. “So I think they understand that if you have school work to get done, you might not get all the baseball stuff done, especially in the offseason and they are okay with that.”
The Cardinals are given enough opportunities to excel in the classroom while playing great baseball which has helped their first baseman all four years.
“Obviously, school does come first,” Sotiros said. “I think the coaches do a great job emphasizing that and getting us the support system to get everything done.”
The university isn’t the only help Sotiros has found over the years.
“My family is a great support system,” Sotiros said. “They’ve been with me through the ups and downs. I couldn’t have done it without them and their support along the way.”
It’s very helpful for a program to succeed when both the athletic department and the academic program’s work well together.
“The professors understand, we might miss some classes because of baseball, but they work with us,” Sotiros said. “And vis versa with the athletic department understanding that academics do come first.”
To some, accounting could be very intimidating. Sotiros knew though that he wanted to go down the business road, but wasn’t quite sure what route to take until accounting presented itself.
“Accounting is a good a route to branch out a lot of different ways with it,” Sotiros said. “That’s how I chose that.”
Sotiros also said his major just comes naturally to him and he’s excited about the future it holds for him.
“I’m kind of pretty good at it,” Sotiros said. “That drew me to it also and there’s a lot of job opportunities moving forward. “
He does have to do a lot of explaining to people when they ask him why he chose a major that could seem difficult with a lot of numbers involved.
“Accounting isn’t as much numbers as people think,” Sotiros said. “That is kind of the connotation around it. It’s not like a math teacher doing all those hard calculus problems.”
Sotiros will continue to study for the last three parts of his CPA during the summer. He will then start working for PricewaterhouseCoopers accounting firm in the fall, but he will work for higher occupations in the future.
“Ultimate dream job would be a CFO of a company,” Sotiros said. “Helping a company and trying to make a difference in the world.”