Study Abroad and Baseball

In europe there is no college sports, but there are quite good competitive adult leagues in Germany, Holland and italy. 

In the German first division for example quite a few former college players and even a few ex minor leaguers play. 

Al PAL,

My oldest son and I looked into semester abroad and he brought it up with coaches while he was being recruited across D1s and D3s.  The coaches had no problem with a semester abroad and actually encouraged recruits to do it if the opportunity presented itself.   However, coaches pointed out that in their past experiences there were a couple majors that made a junior year semester abroad very difficult.   It just so happened that son was one of those majors.    So, in our experience the baseball wasn't as much the challenge as it was the field of study.  I highly encourage anybody considering a semester abroad to ask questions on the front end so they aren't surprised later.

I hope your son enjoys his experience abroad and is ready for the baseball season when he returns.   Good luck!

Son spent his Jr year of HS in France.   Lined up a club baseball team to play w in his home city.  They were excited to have him, and he was looking forward to it.  But when he arrived in his home city, and realized where his host family lived in relation to the field the team played and practiced on, and the location of his school, it became a logistical struggle and ultimately did not come together.  It was a 3-piece puzzle (school location, practice location, home, and just not enough hours in the day) that just would not fit together.   

As  Americans we take for granted our cars and the ease of travel that comes w it.    If son had a car he could have pulled it off.   But being in a French city, at age 16-17 and dependent on public transportation, it just was not possible unfortunately.   If his host family lived closer to ball park he probably could have made it work.  

He was able to play club basketball while there though as the locations for that were doable.   

Funny thing is, we studied the maps of his home city before he left and thought, "oh yeah, that's doable."   But once he got there and got his class schedule and host family address?   It became clear he would not be playing baseball while in France.  He did make it to one practice (took him like 90-mins one way  to get there w 3 different bus transfers).  In all honesty he said they were pretty bad and that it just was not worth his time and effort.  I mean if it was a 20-30 minute trip he'd of stuck it out just for the experience.   But not for 90-mins one way.   

So son played hoops and hit the local weight room that school year.   

Best of luck though.  Hope your boy has better luck!

Al Pal posted:

A few tidbits about having a 'normal' college life whilst involved in the college baseball adventure. Rising college jr, LHP, heading to Europe for fall semester. How study abroad is possible/doable (in order of priorities):

1. Scholarship travels with him (D-3 academic money).
2. Realized baseball is only going to be 4-years total (hard lesson).
3. Made enough cash during summer job while also playing summer collegiate league (not as hard as everyone thinks)
4. Funny enough--they have a baseball program at a local institute where he'll start getting his arm back in shape b/f heading back to campus for the Feb start of season (who'd a thunk)

 

Al - Where is he going and what / where is the baseball program?  

hey Texas: He's an IR major (no labs, no inflexible course sequences). He'll be in Vienna, Austria. There's a sport institute that all college students can join.  He's going to connect w someone there to throw with/to as well as do all the strength & conditioning he'll need. Super cool he's working this all out. I bet he gets a few chuckles from the Austrian customs dudes when they see his glove and ball come through the x-ray scanner!

My son played for the Vienna Wanderers in Vienna the year he graduated.  They have their own field and a complete group of teams for almost every age.  He played for their pro team and said the quality of play was better than JucoD1 but not as good as his strong mid major (Liberty) D1.  It was great for him.  How cool is it for a recent college graduate to get to go to Europe, play baseball all expenses paid and get paid to do it too.

http://www.wanderers.at/index.php/de/softball

ignore the softball above