Mario Lanza had it figured out: he would go to college on a baseball scholarship and doors would continue to open. There was one problem: Lanza didn’t make his studies a priority.
“I thought I had everything because I was pretty good at baseball, so I had scholarships,” the 20-year-old explains. “And then all of a sudden (it) just kind of went away.”
Today, Lanza is focused on becoming a Navy SEAL. Likewise, he’s training at CrossFit Phoenixville, roughly 30 miles northwest of Philadelphia.
“I’m trying to do something new and exciting and travel and become something,” he says.
At the box, co-owner and coach John Warnek tutors Lanza in math so he can pass the Armed Services Vocational Aptitude Battery (ASVAB) required to enter all branches of the U.S. military.
“It’s been really nice working with him,” says Warnek, a former physics teacher, “because for the first time in a long time, I assign homework and every bit of it gets done and then some.”
After this video was filmed, Warnek reported that his student’s work had indeed paid off: Lanza passed the ASVAB.
Video by Mike Donofrio.
7min 15sec
HD file size: 136 MB
SD wmv file size: 87 MB
SD mov file size: 43 MB
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Additional reading: Full Mission Profile by Rob Ord, published March 1, 2009.