Few people exemplify the combination of student/athlete as well as Division Avenue's Michael Biolansky. Not only does Mike play cornerback and wide receiver on the football team, guard on the basketball team and patrols the outfield for the baseball team, but he carries a 102.7 weighted academic average. His high average is equaled by his 1340 on the SAT's and perfect scores on all of his New York State Regents examinations.

He defies the thinking that participating in extra circular activities can have a negative effect on academics. On the contrary, he feels that his activities help his academics.

"Athletics keep me organized," he says. "I don't have the opportunity to put things off. They have to be done and I only have a limited time frame to get them done."

Mike has had time to get used to following a tight schedule, since he has been involved in athletics since he was at Wisdom Junior High School. He was also involved in Little League at Levittown Central and Levittown West and has been in the St. Bernard's basketball program since he was in the 4th grade.

Not limiting himself to just sports, he had also been involved with the Key Club and Model Congress at Division, while serving as the editor of the Athletes Helping Athletes newspaper last year. He is also an intern with Coach Smith with the CD students at Division.

A decision about which college he will attend is still in the future, but he knows he wants to major in engineering. He's always been very interested in science and has done very well in math. He's not sure what area of engineering he would like to get involved with, but he has already been accepted at Hofstra. He is also strongly considering Johns Hopkins, University of Pennsylvania and the University of Delaware.

Standing at 5'8" and weighing 160 pounds this hard working student/athlete realizes that his size would probably limit the possibility of continuing his athletic career at the next level, although he might consider trying baseball, if he were to attend a Division III school such as Hopkins.

"I would miss playing sports in college, but the time necessary to dedicate to both athletics and academics might be too demanding," feels Mike, but playing baseball would be a nice way.

His choices for college all would keep him within a few hours of home, where he has a close family relationship. He parents, Rose and Howie have closely followed Mike's career on the athletic field and in the classroom and can be seen at most Division functions.

Ronnie Serrano, All State Wrestler, is MacArthur High School's choice for Athletic Spotlight for the week of March 30, 1998.

Ronnie has been involved with wrestling since he entered middle school in the sixth grade and the skills and competitive nature that he developed in the middle school were carried over to high school. In high school Ronnie further developed these skills and fine tuned them to the extent that he became a major force on the high school wrestling circuit.

As early as the ninth grade, Ronnie was an All Conference selection, no easy task for someone so young. He was a repeat selection for All Conference again as a 10-grader and by the time he finished the season as an 11th-grader, he placed second in the Nassau County Championships. Placing second as an eleventh-grader did not sit well with Ronnie so as a senior he had only one goal in mind and that was to be a County Champion so he could go upstate to Syracuse where he would compete against the best wrestlers in New York State. Ronnie achieved his goal by placing fourth in the state tournament, good enough to make the All State Wrestling Team. The top six wrestlers in each weight class are chosen to make the All State Wrestling Team.

In the spring season, Ronnie takes his talent to the baseball field where he has been a member of the Varsity baseball team since his sophomore year. If you ask him where he is going to play, he will tell you that he will play wherever he's needed; he is one of those unselfish players who puts the team first.

In the classroom Ronnie applies the same drive and determination to academics that he applies to athletics as evidenced by the fact that he has been on the Honor Roll since his freshmen year; he is ranked in the top third of his senior class of 220 and scored over 1000 on his SAT's, he was nominated for Who's Who in High school students, he is a member of the elite Peer Leader group and is a Renaissance Blue Card holder.

Staying busy and always looking for something to do, when he is not at practice or in class, you can find Ronnie helping out in the attendance office, getting involved in toy drives, food drives and putting in 50 hours of community service to help the elderly and those in need.

Ronnie Serrano certainly deserves to be placed in the MacArthur High School Athletic Spotlight for this week, and MacArthur High School is proud to place him there. We wish him luck next year where he will be attending either Cortland State College or Columbia University.