By JARROD POTTER
TRADING his Berwick baseball gear for a Blue Knights’ jersey, Scott Simpson is thrilled to start his American college baseball journey.
Simpson, 19, from Berwick, flew overseas this week to start his two-year stint at Dakota County Technical College in Rosemount, Minnesota.
With a reel of highlights – including matches played at state level with School Sport Victoria and Baseball Victoria on top of his summer and winter commitments with Berwick – Simpson started applying to colleges across America and the results were extremely promising.
“Had a few interested colleges but I chose Dakota County as they were a better college and won a lot more than the others and the scholarship availability was better too,” Simpson said.
Playing in the Division 2 NCAA junior college system will be a step up for the right-hand pitcher, but he’s prepared to make that leap in standard.
“It’s a high standard – there’s higher – I can’t compare it to anything yet, but I think it’s going to be a bit of a step up from what I’m used to,” Simpson said.
“It’s pretty awesome to go over though – I’ve wanted to do it for the past three years.
“It’s been the goal to get over there (America) and everything I’ve done since then was working towards it.”
With experience under his belt from a stint on the Gold Coast as part of the Major League Baseball Australian Academy Program last year, Simpson knows it won’t be easy to succeed at the higher level but wants the challenge that goes with it.
“I went to the academy in Queensland last year and that put me on that path and it’s a bit of a relief but it’s also pretty satisfying because of all the work I’ve had to do for it,” Simpson said.
“That was my first experience of playing every day, which is what college is like and helped me comprehend what it takes to get to that higher level.
“Going up there sort of put me back in my place a little bit – the guys up there are absolute guns, lots of pros and a lot of juniors who are really good at what they do.
“I didn’t have the best trip up there – didn’t play as well as I would’ve liked – but I definitely think that put a bit more fire in the belly to work harder and train more to get to where I am now.
Opponents will need to watch out for his fast curve change as well as a blistering fast ball clocking in at 133 kilometres-per-hour when he dons the Blue Knights jersey and he hopes regional and ultimately national success is on the horizon.
“I want to start working towards my degree in exercise science, but ultimately the goal is to get a lot of game time and try to win the region again like they did last year,” Simpson said.
“Maybe take it that step further and get to the junior college world series.”
Simpson wanted to thank his parents – Yvonne and Andrew – for driving him around and supporting his baseball dream as well as his three best mates – Dean, Brendan and Connor – for helping him prepare for his time in the states.
