Choosing a college or university to attend after high school can be a challenging process. Whether you're a student athlete or just a student, there are many factors that go into picking where a young adult wants to spend the next four years of their life.

For Tamaqua basketball and baseball standout Brett Kosciolek, that challenge is now over. The Raiders senior has decided to take his talents to Lawrenceville, NJ where he will be a member of the Rider University baseball team on an Division 1 athletic scholarship.It was a decision that the pitcher/first baseman wanted to make before the basketball and baseball seasons got underway."It feels great to have the weight off my shoulders," said Kosciolek. "It's been a pretty stressful time trying to decide where I wanted to go, but now that I have, I feel like I can focus better on the seasons ahead of me. It's a great opportunity to play athletics at the next level and I want to be performing my best heading into the summer."So, how did Kosciolek get here? Well the first answer to that question is easy. The talent and size has always been there for Kosciolek, who is a lanky 6-7. His athletic ability first started shining on the basketball court. His smooth and athletic play on the hardwood carried over to the baseball diamond.In his sophomore season at Tamaqua, he won Times News Basketball Player of the Year and Times News Baseball Player of the Year, leading the Raiders to their first District 11 postseason berth in basketball since 2004. A couple of months later, he was part of a Raider baseball squad that won a District 11 AAA title. He led the area in home runs that season and served as the Tamaqua pitching ace throughout their championship campaign.Last season, Kosciolek battled some injuries, but kept performing when given the opportunity. He was once again named Times News Basketball Player of the Year even after missing multiple games after suffering a concussion. In baseball, he battled some elbow issues, holding him back from pitching early in the season. However as the season went on and his arm became stronger he showed once again that his pitching talents were top tier as the Raiders repeated as District 11 champs.In his three-year baseball career at Tamaqua, Kosciolek has a 1.71 ERA with 162 strikeouts in 127 innings pitched. At the plate, he has a career batting average of .361 with 54 RBIs and 12 home runs in 241 at bats.With those type of statistics, a number of schools were certainly after Kosciolek, so what made him choose Rider over the others?"I really liked the area that the college is in," said Kosciolek. "Lawrenceville is a beautiful town and it has that small town feel to it and that was important to me. I also got to stay the night and meet the players and coaches and it obviously went well. I just think it's a program on the rise and a great fit for me."There's no doubt in anyone's mind that Kosciolek has the talent and intangibles to be extremely successful at the high school level. But what can Kosciolek bring to the table at Rider to help them win a Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference (MAAC) Championship?"Brett is as talented as they come, but when it comes to sports IQ there's not a better kid out there," said Tamaqua baseball coach Jeff Reading. "The kid just understands the game and maybe his best quality is that he never gets frazzled. If something goes wrong out there, he never puts his head down, he just keeps dealing and that's what college coaches really look for."