The three-sport athlete shined brightest on the diamond. The third baseman and pitching ace earned All-Catholic honors three years in a row. As a senior, Podlas captained the Crusaders on his way to earning a spot on the All-Western New York team.
Podlas' reflection:
I would like to thank the Hall of Fame Committee, the board of trustees, and Fr. Ciancimino for this incredible honor.
I would also like to thank my mother and father, who are no longer with us, for their support throughout the years and for the sacrifices they made in allowing me to attend Canisius High School. I can’t think of a single event they were not in attendance providing support. I wish you both were here now.
I would also like to thank my brothers, both of whom are graduates of Canisius, Mark ’77 and Bob ’78, also members of the Canisius Athletic Hall of Fame. Behind the scenes they were instrumental to my development. I benefitted from being the youngest sibling of two older brothers who would also enjoy athletic success during their years here at Canisius in the late 70’s. You inspired me and ultimately paved the way for my own athletic journey years later.
I would like to thank all my coaches and teachers and so many others for all the time, instruction, dedication and sacrifices made throughout my four years.
To my teammates, it was an honor competing with you on the field of play. More importantly thank you for your friendships. It was you along with all the dedicated coaches that proved beneficial to my playing career.
To my fellow inductees, congratulations, it is an honor to be alongside you here today.
Finally, I would like to thank my family and those in attendance. Thank you for sharing this special day with me.
Canisius High School is the gold standard. Being a student athlete here at Canisius can come with high expectations. However, it also provides guidance and teaches life lessons and habits that prepare young men for success not only athletically but in life
as well. Throughout my time I learned the importance of individual sacrifice, discipline, dedication, and to embrace a team first attitude. By consistently performing these traits, individual success would follow. I learned the lesson of paying it forward, to educate and provide guidance to underclassman through not only words but actions as well,
so that they could fully understand all that Canisius stands for. More importantly, I learned to realize the enormity of the responsibility I had as an athlete at Canisius. I not only represented current Canisius students during my time, but I also shouldered the obligation to uphold the success and tradition of those that came before me. This provided me the internal motivation to want to excel. I never took the court or field hoping to win, but rather expecting to win, and gave maximum effort with this in mind. Simply put, I had grown to learn that the opportunity to compete for Canisius would always mean more than individual statistics which held me accountable and proved to have a positive impact ultimately on my career.
Thank you again for this incredible honor of being selected to the Canisius High School Athletic Hall of Fame. Words cannot express what this means to me. I am proud and humbled to forever join such a distinguished list of successful athletes.
