Off To The Netherlands

After spending a semester at college hoping that an opportunity to play baseball would come around, it did. I am now at the end of my 1st semester and a few days ago I was offered the opportunity to go play professional baseball in the Netherlands. I couldn't accept the offer straight away because I have school exams to do.  The team, Corendon Kinheim wanted me there before June 9th and my exam was scheduled on June 15th. After speaking with my lecturers and the Dean at college, they are allowing me to take my exam early so I can accept the offer to play overseas. A similar offer to play in the Netherlands was brought to me a few weeks before this one, but I couldn't have accepted since I still had more than 3 weeks of semester to go and seeing as I had gone that far, I thought it was only right to complete my semester.

It all happened quite quickly actually. Vaughan Harris, who is a pitcher on the Sydney Blue Sox played over in the Netherlands a few years ago and his old coach came to him about a week ago asking him if he knew anyone that was interested in playing for his team Corendon Kinheim. Vaughan contacted me and obviously I was interested but had to sort out everything with college first.

I contacted the staff at my school telling them I've been given an opportunity to play baseball in the Netherlands and they were very cooperative with me in allowing me to take my exam 9 days earlier than the rest of my course. That just means I'll have to cram a whole lot of studying in, in a short amount of time.

I will take my exam on June 6th, then fly out the next day to Netherlands. It may not be the Minor Leagues, but it gives me a chance to do something I love once again on the other side of the world. Like my mum always tells me, God has a plan for all of us, and his plan has taken me all over the world to play a sport I love. I can't complain about that can I?

Uni Games

I know I haven't posted in a while, but if you follow me on twitter you would know that I've been getting stuck into college trying to earn that degree. Now when I first started at the Australian College of Physical Education, the tutors and older students told us to get the most out of your college experience you should join in extra curricular activities. Since I've started at college I've played in the Oz Tag team and I am also in the mixed netball team to play at the University Games.

In America college sports is huge, but here in Australia its not taken as seriously. The University Games in a 5 day tournament where all the Universities come together and compete in different sporting events. We don't have a baseball team at school so I decided that I should try out for the netball team. At the tryout I didn't do too good, but I think I only got it because I was taller than most people. You're probably wondering what netball is, and the easiest explanation I can give you is that it's a bit like basketball but you can't bounce the ball or move once you have possession of the ball. It's also designed to be a women's sport but I'm playing on the mixed team with guys and girls. Today I had my first practise with the team and after quite a while I think I may finally understand some of the rules but with a little less than two months to go until we go away for the University Games, I'm pretty sure I'll know the finer points of the game.

Highlights from the ANZ Championship, the professional netball league in Australia