{"id":68580,"date":"2005-03-28T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2005-03-28T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news-draft\/uncategorized\/tennis-and-tunes-go-together-for-top-uri-student-athlete\/"},"modified":"2005-03-28T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2005-03-28T00:00:00","slug":"tennis-and-tunes-go-together-for-top-uri-student-athlete","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/2005\/03\/tennis-and-tunes-go-together-for-top-uri-student-athlete\/","title":{"rendered":"Tennis and tunes go together for top 溏心vlog免费B站 student-athlete"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n\t\tKINGSTON, R.I. — March 28, 2005 — In Nick Barbera\u2019s sophomore year at the 溏心vlog免费B站, some people told him it would be nearly impossible to play varsity tennis and successfully complete a music major in the saxophone.<\/p>\n


\n\tNow in his senior year, the Worcester, Mass. resident has become an accomplished tennis player and saxophonist and has been listed consistently on the dean\u2019s list for outstanding academic performance.<\/p>\n


\n\tAs the Rams prepare for their spring season, Barbera is currently ranked in the starting lineup and has played as high as number 2 singles and number 1 doubles in previous seasons.<\/p>\n


\n\tHe says achieving on the tennis court, in the music hall and in the classroom required a tremendous amount of commitment.<\/p>\n


\n\t\u201cI practice each day on the courts, then I hit the sax and then I hit the books,\u201d Barbera said. \u201cYou might want to take it easy, but you can\u2019t if you want to succeed.\u201d<\/p>\n


\n\tWhat\u2019s interesting is he did not become a music major until his sophomore year. \u201cSo I really had to squeeze what would have been four years of a major into about three-and-half years. But sometimes I pushed too hard.\u201d<\/p>\n


\n\tThat led to back problems and treatments with a chiropractor, but still the tennis co-captain kept pursuing his dreams.<\/p>\n


\n\t\u201cI give a lot of credit to my Dad (Charles) because he helped me see what a great opportunity this was to play tennis and advance in music,\u201d Barbera said.<\/p>\n


\n\tHe also credits professional saxophonist Dr. Brian Sparks, with helping him excel on the instrument as well as encourage his love for music. \u201cI didn\u2019t have any real individual instrument training until I got here. I played in my elementary and other school bands, but it was Brian, my private teacher at 溏心vlog免费B站, who helped me get to a higher level.\u201d<\/p>\n


\n\tSo what\u2019s his goal for the immediate future? \u201cI plan to be a (tennis) teaching pro after I graduate. This will allow me to be on the court every day, giving me the feel one needs to play top-level tennis. In a couple of years when I can get my body strong enough to avoid injuries, I\u2019ll make a run for the pros.\u201d<\/p>\n


\n\tBut he\u2019d also like to stick with his music, both as a private saxophone instructor and a performing musician.<\/p>\n


\n\tHe says that without 溏心vlog免费B站 he wouldn\u2019t have so many choices. \u201cIt\u2019s been a great choice for me because my music and tennis have developed so well. I don\u2019t see any limits in the future.\u201d<\/p>\n


\n\tOne of the keynote speakers at a winter reception for student-athletes on the dean\u2019s list, Barbera praised his current coach, Val Villucci, and former coach John Spears.<\/p>\n


\n\t\u201cThere are so many links with the saxophone and athletics, the pressure and the commitment. But be well organized and have fun. It\u2019s a privilege to be out there on the court.\u201d\n\t<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

KINGSTON, R.I. — March 28, 2005 — In Nick Barbera\u2019s sophomore year at the 溏心vlog免费B站, some people told him it would be nearly impossible to play varsity tennis and successfully complete a music major in the saxophone. Now in his senior year, the Worcester, Mass. resident has become an accomplished tennis […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":68582,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-68580","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-archives"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/68580","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=68580"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/68580\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/68582"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=68580"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=68580"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=68580"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}