In another of the Bear Insider's features on why the California Class of 2009 recruits chose Cal, Immaculata (Somerville, NJ) High School All-American offensive lineman Mark Brazinski offers a glipse into the process of committing to Cal and what made the Bears the best fit for him.
Dear fans of the Golden Bears,
To those of you who don’t know me by now, my name is Mark Brazinski. I was the first person to sign and become a Golden Bear. I am writing this short exposé to give the fans that I love so much some insight into the life of a recruit.
I come from a small catholic school known as Immaculata High School, a school that has approximately a hundred boys and a hundred girls in each grade. I am an Under Armour All-American center, with a passion for run blocking and a hunger for pancakes. My passions in life include 6 a.m. lifting, running, bowling, and studying. I am looking to major in business with either a strong concentration in finance or marketing.
I had a long and fun high school career. My high school offensive philosophy was simple; our offensive line is going to beat the daylights out of your front seven and we will run the ball. We must have run the ball at least 90% of the time. That philosophy still runs through my mind every time I play the game. My varsity record was 33-3, with 1 state title and 2 losses in the state title game. I only kept stats my junior year and senior year. I had 85 pancakes my junior year and 96 my senior year. My favorite high school moment was playing in the Under Armour All-American game, where I was able to announce that I was going to play football and study at the best university in the world: Cal Berkeley.
My first memory of Berkeley actually occurred while I was still in Newark, New Jersey. There was snow falling down as my car service drove me to the airport at 4:30 AM. There was enough snow to cancel school. I took a US Airways flight to Phoenix and then to Oakland. It was almost eight hours! My official visit to Berkeley opened my eyes to the unique lifestyle and climate of the bay area. I made sure to get In-N- Out burger on my official because there are none on the east coast. Those burgers are things of legend and totally lived up to all my standards. The highlight of my visit occurred after my first visit to In-N-Out, I was called into coach Tedford’s office. He sat my father and me down and discussed my future. After a very thorough speech he said, "After considering all things, I would like to offer you a scholarship to play for Cal". Immediately I answered, "thank you coach, I would like to accept this offer right now". Coach looked bewildered at my response, his reaction was to ask me whether I wanted to discuss it with my father, I knew there was no need to do that, we discussed it earlier and the opportunity was too perfect to give up. I made sure to request number 68 and to ask if I could officially announce my choice on national television at the All-American game.
I chose Cal because it was the best fit for me. My brother is a trader for a hedge fund on Park Avenue in New York City, and I wanted to do something similar. The Haas School of Business is one of the best and most prestigious business schools in all the country. In my eyes, Cal is a rising program on a national level, and I would like to be part of the team that goes on to win the Pac-10 and the Rose Bowl and national title. I am looking forward to the day we play the Big Game at home and my teammates and I get to run through the helmet and smoke into loud stadium. I understand that there is a great tradition of offensive line play, and I am looking forward to keeping the tradition running.
Yours truly,
Mark Brazinski #68
