Student Athlete Alumni Spotlight: Greg Ellena

Sept. 22, 2003

Dress for Success – visit Hurricane Headquarters

by: Tracy Gale

Coral Gables, Fla. (www.hurricanesports.com) — A young man from Gibsonia, Pennsylvania wants to play major college baseball. He is also a math and science whiz, having graduated second in his high school class. Not being from a hotbed for baseball recruiting, he decides to contact the big-time collegiate programs he has seen on TV: Arizona State, Southern Cal and the University of Miami.

What happens?

He picks Miami, majors in one of the hardest academic programs (electrical engineering), makes honor roll, walks on to the defending College World Series championship team, and a few years later is named the Most Valuable Player as the ‘Canes win their second national championship.

Sound like a movie script?

It isn’t. Greg Ellena is the star of this real life story.

Growing up in the Pittsburgh area, Greg was familiar with the strong, nationally ranked academic programs at Carnegie Mellon University and Pitt. With his grades and career ambitions it would seem natural that he’d attend one of these top-tier engineering schools.

“My older brother Jeff and I visited the CMU and Pitt campuses. We knew guys that went there. The schools look like your traditional northern campuses, with the old brick buildings. Everything is very formal and very big. The look of the schools was very intimidating, and I didn’t want to spend four years of my life in that environment, where the engineering students would be so uptight and competitive. That’s what that type of environment breeds-guys wouldn’t want to talk or share notes-they’d be afraid of giving up their ‘edge’. I wanted to go to a school with a good engineering program but that was also a little more laid back.”

As focused as he was on getting an engineering degree, Greg was also committed to playing ball.

“I knew I wanted to play baseball at a big-time program, but college coaches from California and Florida aren’t exactly coming to Gibsonia to recruit players,” Greg said. “A lot of kids, when they finish high school they don’t know what they want to do. I always loved math and science and knew I wanted to study electrical engineering. But I also wanted to play baseball. So I looked around at schools with major baseball programs that also offered engineering degrees. Those were the schools that I applied to.”

Greg sent out letters to the baseball coaches at Arizona State, Southern Cal and Miami. USC showed some interest in him, but he had a distant connection to UM: his high school biology teacher is the father of former UM athletic department staffer Rich Dalrymple.

“Mr. Dalrymple let his son know about me, about my baseball stats. He knew I would be trying out for the baseball team so he made the assistant baseball coaches aware of me. Ron Steiner was UM’s sports information director at that time, and he was from my area. So between him and Mr. Dalrymple, I felt a connection to the Hurricanes.”

While he was sifting through scholarship offers and college acceptance letters, Greg got a note from UM saying they would be hosting an information session at a hotel in Greensburg, PA, not far from where he lived.

“It wasn’t a college fair, with tables set up for a lot of schools. It was only UM. I went and was really impressed. The University of Miami is such a young school. It was founded in 1925, so when I was a high school senior UM hadn’t even been in existence for 60 years. But it was clear to me that the “Suntan U” image and reputation was gone, and they had an engineering program. After I was accepted Jeff and I drove down to Coral Gables. The campus was so nice and so completely different from what I was used to seeing up north. Jeff went to Junietta College, near Penn State in central PA. We were walking around UM’s campus and he said, “I wish I could do it all over again and come here!”

Greg came down for freshman year in the fall of 1982 and moved in to the “towers” complex, the dorms that were then reserved for all first-year students. He went for his walk-on tryout, along with his roommate, who also was from Pittsburgh.

“We get there for the tryouts and the first thing we were told was, ‘Even if you make the team now [for ‘fall ball’] there is no guarantee you will be around for the spring,’ Greg says. “I remember one of the assistant coaches telling us that, and then I remember Coach [Skip] Bertman came and talked to us. I figured of all the walk-ons I had a pretty decent chance to stick because teams always need an extra bullpen catcher, and I also had some size. I made the cut, but my roommate didn’t. At the end of fall ball, Coach Bertman told me I made the team. I was on the spring roster! He said, ‘We’re going to keep you, but I want you to know you’ll probably never play.’ At that point I didn’t care. I was just so happy to make the team. Walking on to the defending national championship team was a big enough accomplishment for me.”

Even though Coach Bertman said he wouldn’t see any game action Greg was accepted as a teammate right away.

“One of the first football games of my freshman year, I went with a bunch of guys from the team. We are there at the Orange Bowl and [All American] pitcher Rob Souza says to me, “I like the way you catch me. You receive the ball really well.” That meant a lot-Rob threw major heat, 95 or 96 mph. Here I was, a catcher who wasn’t recruited onto a team with All American pitchers, and one of the biggest names is complimenting me. You don’t forget that.”

That first season in a Hurricanes baseball uniform was very special, even if he didn’t have many at bats.

“Little kids would always come down and talk to us in the bullpen. They didn’t care if you were a star or not, if you had a Hurricane jersey on they just wanted to talk to you. And the old guys! Mark Light Stadium had a great bunch of old guys, regulars who didn’t miss a game. I remember them coming out every night, they always wanted to say hi and talk baseball.”

He wasn’t on an athletic scholarship but his hard work was being noticed. Coach Dan Canevari got him a work-study job with baseball, and Greg earned money by working at youth baseball clinics the athletic department would organize. He also helped the Mark Light grounds crew guys maintain the field. After his freshman year Greg moved in to the baseball apartments on campus. He roomed with pitchers Dan Davies and Gus Meizoso.

Greg laughs, “Coach Bertman reminded me that, even though I was moving in with the baseball team I had to keep up the GPA I had while living with engineering majors. The team was depending on my grade point average contribution.”

In 1983 Coach Bertman left for the head coaching job at Louisiana State University, and Jerry Weinstein came in as assistant head coach. Bertman made sure Greg didn’t have to try out again as a sophomore. Greg started traveling on road trips as a sophomore. This meant he started spending more time around Coach Ron Fraser.

“Coach Fraser was amazing. I knew what he had accomplished in baseball, and how he had built up the UM program. But being around him you see how people react to him and what happens when he walks into a room– everybody stops and looks at him. He is able to get so much done it is just unbelievable. He knows how and when to be political and what everybody needs from him. If it was important to let someone beat him in tennis, he would.”

Everyone who was ever around the baseball program when it was led by the “Wizard of College Baseball” has a favorite Ron Fraser story. Or perhaps three.

“First off, Coach Fraser tells a set of stories at the beginning of each season. The same stories in the same order. Well, a lot of guys would get drafted or they transferred in from a junior college. They would only hear his stories once or twice. But I heard each and every story for four years!”

Hurricanes road trips could sometimes tempt risky behavior by players. During Greg’s sophomore year, while playing a series at the University of Florida, a couple of ‘Canes stayed out late. They got caught. Fraser got an idea.

“At six o’clock the next morning we were told to dress in our game uniforms, not just the guys who broke curfew, but all of us,” Greg remembers. “Coach Fraser yells at us to get on the bus, and we drive over to Florida’s baseball field. We get there and he says, ‘Run.’ So we start running. A lot of running. We were all just dead…then he has us stand up and we think, thank God it’s over, we can go back to the hotel. But Fraser says, ‘Now roll.’ He made us roll on the ground, from the outfield to the infield–and then back! Everybody was sick, dizzy, throwing up. And this is all happening in our game uniforms for that night. Finally, it’s over. We stand up-which was tough at that point-and he says, ‘You aren’t getting back on that bus. Walk back to the hotel.’ And off he went on the bus and it drove away. Let me tell you, it was a l-o-n-g walk back to the hotel.”

Each season the Hurricanes would play at least one game at the Light against a major league club. During Greg’s tenure the Hurricanes played the Baltimore Orioles and the Atlanta Braves. Greg picks up the story:

“I wasn’t playing at all when the Baltimore Orioles came to Mark Light Stadium. But I get in the game late as a DH. My name is announced and I go up there to hit. Storm Davis is pitching and Rick Dempsey is catching. We hadn’t had a lot of hits that day. Rick Dempsey was so cool. He knew which UM players were the stars and who didn’t play much. When I got to the plate he made a big deal of it for me. Dempsey talked to me the whole time. He’d say, ‘Here comes his fastball, be ready.’ How is that possible?! I couldn’t even see Davis’ fastball! It was 96 mph and it just jumped! I just stood there and laughed. Dempsey tells me what the next pitch is going to be. Then, before the third pitch, he says it’s going to be a fastball again. I swing at it but because the pitch was so fast I was late and couldn’t get around on the ball. I ended up hitting the ball over the first baseman’s head for a single into right field! The next year we played the Braves and again I got just one at bat. I hit another single, so I can say I batted a thousand against major league pitching!”

Greg never expected to be an every day player, not at a place like Miami, where the players who sign letters of intent are good enough to be high round major league draft picks. There was always a hot new recruit coming in, whether to catch or be the big bat in the lineup. But in his junior year, Greg did get a chance to play. His bat was so hot Coach Fraser couldn’t sit him down again.

“In late April or early May of my junior year (1985) I was hitting about .335 and playing every day. My hot streak continued through the regional tournament which we won, so we made it back to Omaha. Coach thought I would be too nervous at the College World Series. He didn’t start me in our first game.”

However, Fraser did see Greg hitting bombs during BP, so Greg got in that first game, a win over Stanford. He started the next three games for the Canes as the DH, went 4-5 in the title game and was named the College World Series MVP. Not bad for someone who, just three years before, was told he ‘might not be around for spring ball.’

Greg left UM with his College World Series MVP trophy, a national championship ring and a bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering. Even with his heavy game, practice and travel schedule Greg managed to complete an engineering program, which is 138 credits, in just four and a half years. He may not have been drafted by a pro baseball team but he was highly drafted of sorts-Florida Power and Light recruited him. Greg worked for FP&L for seven years before moving back to the Pittsburgh area, where he works for Dominion Power.

Since returning to Pennsylvania Greg has married Crista, a Marshall University graduate. They have one son Justin, now four. Moving back north Greg realized he missed the Florida sunshine. As the fates would have it, one of his former bosses was promoted to FP&L’s executive offices. He asked Greg if he wanted to return to Florida and join him there. Greg said yes. He will return to the company later this year that he “signed” with right out of college; this time as an Electrical and Process Control Project Leader.

“It used to be that you worked for one company for 30 or 40 years and then retired. We are so mobile now, people switch jobs five times or more during their lifetime. Well, this is my fifth move and I hope it’s the last one! Crista and I want to settle for good, in a home where we will raise our son. From Florida I moved back to Pittsburgh and worked there for seven years, and then the company sent me to Houston. After that I came back to Pittsburgh. Now we are moving to South Florida. We don’t want to move once Justin is in school, and he’ll be starting school soon.

Asked if he’ll miss the seasons and the crisp fall Pennsylvania days, Greg is very clear.

“The fall is a great time, and Thanksgiving and Christmas are great. It’s cold and there is snow on the ground. But after Christmas there are four long months before it warms up again. Crista is from the south and she is thrilled with the idea of moving back down that way. She is an equestrienne and is looking forward to riding year-round.”

The family will be relocating to Palm Beach County soon. Living in South Florida again after being away for 10 years, Greg is excited about the prospect of seeing old friends again and taking his son to Hurricane baseball and football games. It’s been 20 years since Greg made the decision to attend the University of Miami, and he has had some time to reflect on the experience.

“What makes a UM degree worth having is the Florida industries and the opportunities in the state. Florida is one of the fastest growing states and the contacts I made there, while in school and afterwards, have really paid off. Thinking about it now, I realize I couldn’t have made a better decision about where to go to school. There were two factors for me in picking a college, a solid engineering program and a strong baseball program. My UM education has increased in value since I left, and as for baseball, I had a tremendous experience being a part of that program for four years. I traveled to Maine, throughout the Midwest and to the College World Series three times. Plus, my senior year we played in a baseball tournament in China.”

Greg Ellena chose to move to South Florida twenty years ago and attend UM. There is no reason to think his choice to return to South Florida will be any less successful.