vermillion is majoring in Construction Management
BREVARD COUNTY • MELBOURNE, FLORIDA – Being a scholar-athlete at Florida Tech takes an incredible amount of hard work and dedication to excel both in the classroom and on the field. Panther baseball player Tyler Vermillion, a senior who is majoring in Construction Management, joins us for a new edition of Scholar-Athlete Spotlight.
Vermillion, a right-handed pitcher from Minneola, Florida, is in his fourth season with the Crimson and Gray after spending the 2020 season at Division I College of Charleston. So far in six relief appearances in 2024, Tyler has picked up three wins and struck out 10 batters in 10.2 innings pitched.
Vermillion was named to the Sunshine State Conference Commissioner’s and Florida Tech Athletic Director’s Honor Roll following each of his first three seasons in Melbourne.
Tyler joined us to talk about how he’s made it all work and what he’s looking forward to in his career after baseball.
Tell us a little bit about your major here at Florida Tech, what made you choose it?
My major is construction management and what made me decide this major, specifically, is that my family has always been around the civil engineering and construction world. It’s really interesting to me, building stuff has always been something I’ve been interested in, and looking up to my uncle and my grandpa, who have been on that side of the work, it’s always been great and that’s why I decided that.
When you were looking at where you wanted to go for your next school, was it about Florida Tech that made you want to be here?
I was born and raised in Florida, that’s probably the biggest thing. Family is very important to me. My mom and my brothers are in Florida as well.
The biggest things that made me decide to come here was the location, getting into construction management/civil engineering and then also just being back home in Florida.
What’s something from your classes that you didn’t know about your major before?
Well, the director of the program, Professor [Albert] Bleakley is a very intelligent person and he provides a lot of practicality. He was my professor for most of my classes, and he’s someone I’ve had an amazing relationship with throughout my time here.
When it comes to safety on the construction site, estimating for upcoming proposals and jobs coming up, and then applying everything from the design side onto the field and navigating it from step one all the way until the end. It was really interesting learning throughout this whole time.
Given how busy your schedule is once the season starts, how do you make sure you keep everything balanced?
I’m here as a scholar-athlete, so school’s first, baseball second, and time management with everything. Our coaches manage everything pretty well and I get plenty of time to knock out the classroom stuff.
So I’m just always trying to get the stuff done, it’s important to me because it’s my future and it’s also what I’m passionate about. So, it’s not necessarily like I’m stressed or cramming for work, I’m becoming better for myself each and every day with my schools and also my sports.
What are some things you need to get the most out of study time? Do you have a playlist or need to be by yourself in a room?
It just depends. When I’m really studying and trying to understand the whole concept, it’s definitely alone time and just really just focusing on my studies. But if I’m just trying to knock out some work or get things done definitely a good playlist to make the time go by faster.
How has being a collegiate athlete prepared you for what you’re doing now and what do you take from the field that you apply to your studies?
The saying in baseball that everyone says is “If you go three out of 10 at the plate, you’re still a Hall of Famer, so you’re failing seven times out of 10.”
So, you’re failing plenty of times throughout this sport, and learning how to deal with that. The adversity behind it has taught me many lessons in life, and how to overcome certain struggles, and downtimes and really embrace and enjoy the good times that life provides for you.
What advice would you give to an athlete coming to Florida Tech that has an interest in Civil Engineering?
You’re always gonna have a job, for sure. The job security is an all-time high. You’re gonna learn a lot of things that are good, even outside of the job.
Whenever you’re going to be at your own home and you have to work on stuff on your own house, you’ll know how to do stuff with that and also managing a team as well. That goes back to baseball, you’re working with a good group of guys, and different individuals as well.
That’s the same thing on a construction site and you’re dealing with different individuals, and you’re in a team-based setting. I think that’s what that’s what gravitated me towards this major, and I assume that’s what’s going to gravitate future Florida Tech students here as well.
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