HP_070519

30 | July 5, 2019 | The highland park landmark sports
hplandmark.com
Volpentesta working hard at North Dakota State
Nick Frazier, Sports Editor
When he was a freshman
at Highland Park High
School, Giancarlo Volpentesta’s
brother, Cristian,
was in the midst of being
recruited by Division
I schools. Cristian would
visit several schools on official
visits, and sometimes
Giancarlo got to tag along.
Those early trips to different
campuses helped
Giancarlo figure out what
he wanted to do after high
school.
“Seeing the atmosphere,
the high intensity, the
fast pace, and then seeing
how the coaches are
and all of the facilites and
everything,” Volpentesta
said. “Once seeing that at
a younger age, I kind of
realized that that’s what I
wanted to do. My brother
was a big influence on
that.”
That’s why Volpentesta,
all six feet, 175 pounds of
him, is currently at North
Dakota State University as
a preferred walk-on. The
wide receiver arrived on
campus on June 8 and has
been working hard lifting
and running.
“I’m loving it so far,
it’s been a great experience,”
Volpentesta said.
“I’ve only been here two
and a half weeks but I can
already tell that I’ll have a
lot of fun.”
Volpentesta comes from
a football family. His dad,
Anthony, played football
at Highland Park and in junior
college. Cristian was
an All-Central Suburban
League first team member
as a junior and senior with
the Giants.
On top of that, Giancarlo
has a little brother,
Giovanni, and an uncle,
Danny, that will be juniors
with the Highland Park
football team this fall.
Needless to say, Giancarlo
was always active growing
up with his family.
“Definitely as little
kids, we had a football in
our hands since we were
little,” Volpentesta said.
“That tradition got passed
on.”
As a wide receiver with
the Giants in his senior
year, Volpentesta totaled
32 catches for 448 yards
and four touchdowns. He
earned Central Suburban
League All-Conference
honors and made 22nd
Century Media’s Football
Team 22 Second Team.
Before the season even
ended, however, Volpentesta
looked to make
his commitment. Some
schools weren’t great at
communicating and being
transparent with him,
but North Dakota State
was always the exception.
NDSU sent recrutiers to
Highland Park to meet
with Volpentesta, which
he enjoyed.
“North Dakota State
was that one school who
was always straight up
with me, they always told
the truth and they were
very good at communicating
about where I am in
the process,” Volpentesta
said. “I already had some
prior knowledge of North
Dakota State because of
my brother, he was getting
recruited by North Dakota
State in high school. That
kind of gave me a little
more background on them
also.”
Volpentesta ended up
visiting NDSU’s campus
four different times, a sure
sign that him and the Bison
were a match.
“The campus is amazing,”
Volpentesta said.
“For football life everything
is nice and close, the
dining center is nice and
close, it’s very convenient.
The facilites are top of the
line, amazing facilites. The
coaching staff is very welcoming,
they’re very cool
people. Everyone’s very
nice with you and everything,
you go to a restaurant
or something and everyone
is super nice.”
Add in the fact that
North Dakota State has
won seven NCAA FCS national
championships this
decade, and it became an
easy choice.
“Obviously, North Dakota
State is a very winning
program, you can
see all the national championships
they’ve won,
that was a very big selling
point,” Volpentesta said.
“Just everything combined,
it was a no-brainer
decision.”
Volpentesta originally
was going to walk on as
a safety — he had seven
interceptions at Highland
Park last season — but has
since switched to a receiver.
Not that Volpentesta
minds; he’s just happy to
be playing the game he
loves in college.
Without guidance from
David Lindquist, Volpentesta’s
high school coach
who played at the University
of Illinois, Urbana-
Champaign, Volpentesta
might not have made it to
North Dakota.
“He knew what the next
level should be like and
how to train me to get to
that level,” Volpentesta
said. “He was really good
at getting me practice and
putting us through the necessary
amount of work to
get to this level. I knew
that college football was
a goal of mine, and he
Highland Park alumnus Giancarlo Volpentesta celebrates after scoring a touchdown
in 2018. 22nd Century Media File Photo
Volpentesta poses in his North Dakota State jersey during one of his visits. Photo
submitted
was going to push me to
the limits and push me to
where I need to be.
“With recruiting he was
pretty good at communicating
with me, if a coach
wanted to talk or a coach
was coming in, he would
always tell me what he
said. He was a pretty good
person that helped me get
to the next level.”