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Timothy Plewak Talks About Sports and Music

By Polina Shemanova

ISABEL FLORES: Switching over to sports – but not completely. Polina Shemanova joins us from the couch with an SU volleyball player who has another hidden talent. Polina?

POLINA SHEMANOVA: Thank you, Isabel. That’s right. I’ve been joined today by Timothy Plewak, a rising sophomore majoring in landscape architecture and at SUNY ESF. Tim, welcome to the show.

TIMOTHY PLEWAK: Thank you for having me.

SHEMANOVA: Of course, my first question to you, obviously, I met you as a volleyball player. Who inspired you to start playing that sport?

PLEWAK: Well, my father has been my foremost and will always be my foremost inspiration in playing volleyball. Ever since I started playing volleyball in eighth grade. I’ve been hearing the rumors. I’ve been hearing the legends of how my dad was just this incredible volleyball player. You know, to look at him, you wouldn’t think volleyball player, He’s kind of short, kind of stocky, more of like a football player build. But I’ve seen the pictures of this. You know, it’s kind of goofy to see this short 5’7, 5’7 and a half, he likes to say, guy floating in the air arm just, you know, reach back as far as he can, ready to pound it into the ground. And he was the captain of my school’s first ever volleyball team, led them to the first sectional championship. And I’m thankful to be part of the team that had the first ever sectional championship in class A. So although it was a bit of a struggle living and growing up in my dad’s shadow, I’m glad that I had the chance to break free and join him in a long line of the first ever. You know.

SHEMANOVA: That’s awesome. And then obviously you brought up your dad, and we talked about this interesting scenario that happened back in his day when he was playing. He popped the volleyball? And we have a little prop here. Actually, you can tell us the story behind that.

PLEWAK: Yeah, that happened. So the legend was that, you know, he went up for the hit and he spiked it into the floor, and it just disintegrated and they canceled the game. But how the story actually went, and I did fact check this with him. He went up for the swing. You know, he jumped as high as you can, like every time, reached his arm as far back as he could and swung as hard as he could. It got caught on the top wire of the net and I guess he said that in hitting so you could tell there was a problem with the ball. But still to be able to rip the leather off the top of the ball like you see here is no small feat. And when the ball hit the floor, there was something wrong and there was a huge delay of the game, and he ended up getting it signed by all of his teammates and coaches. So this is kind of like a symbol of the legacy that I had to overcome. You know, your father popped a volleyball, how do you compete with that?

SHEMANOVA: Absolutely. And as a volleyball player, I think it’s extremely hard and extraordinary to do. Well, the reason why I have you here today is to show us all of your hidden talent that not many people know about. And if you can show us what instrument are you playing and potentially have a little piece of music to play for us right now, that would be fantastic.

PLEWAK: Absolutely. I would love to. So I play four instruments, actually, but my violin is my main. I have the pleasure of playing in the Syracuse Symphony Orchestra here at SU, and music is my passion. It is. I prefer talking over playing or… I prefer to play over talking. So this is perfect.

…Plewak plays violin…

SHEMANOVA: That was amazing. Tim, thank you so much for your time.

PLEWAK: Thank you.

SHEMANOVA: That was amazing. And I’m going to send it back to the desk to Isabel and Laddie.

SYRACUSE, N.Y. (NCC News) — Rising sophomore Timothy Plewak is getting his degree in landscape architecture at SUNY ESF. He is also a volleyball player on the SU Men’s Volleyball club team. While many people know Plewak is a successful volleyball player, he has another hidden talent.

Reporter Polina Shemanova sat down with Timothy Plewak to talk about music. Here’s an excerpt of their interview:

 Polina Shemanova: Now everyone knows you are a great volleyball player, but not many people know that you are also a musician. What instruments do you play?

Timothy Plewak: Violin, piano, cello, guitar.

PS: I know that your mom is a music teacher, she actually went to SU as a music education major. After she introduced you to the music world, why music became important to you?

TP: First of all, I’m extremely thankful to my mom for introducing me to music, I’ll be honest, I gave her a hard time and taking lessons with your mom wasn’t always the smoothest. But thanks to her, I got to a point where music is a huge part of my life.

And as for why it became important to me, if I’m being honest, I prefer playing music to talking. You know how people say that the eyes are the windows to the soul? Well, I believe that music is the language of the soul. Not mathematics, not English, not even volleyball.

For example, think about a sad scene in a movie that you have watched. Say someone close to the protagonist dies or something. There might be no dialogue whatsoever, but still, you could end up in tears. Sure, the visuals have a lot to do with it, but it’s the music that speaks to you and triggers certain feelings. Don’t believe me? Try watching the same scene with, say, happy music instead. You’ll have a hard time crying, I promise!

So yes, I believe music is a superior form of communication.

PS: My last question for you, you are the oldest of seven siblings in your household, and even your 5-year-old brother Josh already knows how to make sounds on violin. Are we expecting to see the Plewak’s music band one day?

TP: This is a small dream of mine, now that I’m in college and more experienced, I know how much fun it is to just jam with other musicians. There are a lot of kids in my house that can play instruments. It’s difficult because they’re all in primary school right now, but someday I hope I can say “Grace, Jeremiah, Isaac, Stephen, let’s jam sesh in the living room!” you know? That would be cool. And who knows maybe we’ll do our own gigs as well.

True passion for sport and music, that’s what makes Timothy Plewak a talented player and a successful musician!

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