I am Playing Volleyball for a Living...

So before I get into the trip details and what I am doing to prepare for the trip I thought I would tell the story of how I got into this situation in the first place. I think this may serve as a good guide for D3 players out there who may want to play overseas.

Throughout college I constantly heard of the D1 and very few D3 players who were playing overseas professionally. I thought to myself "that is pretty cool, but I doubt I am going to be able to make any sort of money over there playing". I always contemplated maybe trying to go over and play second division, but for a while I was just set on getting a real job; you know what normal people do. About halfway through my senior year of volleyball, my coach approached me and gave me a new found confidence. He continued to push me to pursue playing overseas, maybe get some tapes out, and maybe even try out for the US team when that roles around. Again I though; "I am a D3 player and a 6'6'' middle, I do not want to embarrass myself by trying out for these first division teams over in Europe or especially the US team".

The Molten championships rolled around and Stevens lost to Juniata. All of a sudden my volleyball career was over. One of the dads of a player on our team told me, "you know, this is the last time you will be on a team with this sort of competitive atmosphere. Sure there is nationals every year, but that is more of a big party than an actual competition. You should really consider playing overseas". Just like that I was back to thinking about playing again.

After a long summer of job hunting and little success, I finally decided to start actively pursuing a career overseas. I was contacted by the number one first division team in Switzerland and a good first division team from Germany. With no agent, and not enough money to pay the 3000 dollars to go on the "Exposure Tour", I had just sent a 3 minute long highlight tape using simple game footage and windows movie maker. The Swiss team gave me a great offer, but I froze and hesitated on making a decision. It was hard for me to leave all my friends and family behind to go live by myself in a place where I did not speak the language. I went back to Stevens to coach a camp for a week, and while I was there I hung out with the manager of the German team (Ironically he was there visiting) I was in contact with. Unfortunately he had already signed someone in my place because I was not able to provide him with enough game footage for him to make a decision. (Players interested in doing this; send game footage and not just a highlight video) While I was at Stevens he still wanted me to tryout so that he could maybe give me an offer for the next season. Fortunately he liked what he saw, and was very eager to give me a contract for the next season after I played with the Swiss team.

Now for the troubles. After talking with the German guys who had come to the Stevens camp to help coach, I had gained a new want to go and play again. They kind of let me know that even being a little below average for a middle I would still have a lot of success in Europe. Right away I emailed the Swiss coach about my interest, but unfortunately while I was away they signed with another player. All of a sudden I was stuck again with no offers.

I returned home and told the German coaches all about it. A few weeks later the German manager emailed me letting me know that he could not have me giving up on playing over there. He wanted to keep me in the system so that I could play for his team under contract in 2010/2011. Therefore, he gave me an option to come train, and maybe play with his team this year. The one catch was that I would not be making very much money. I would still get housing, food, and most expenses covered; but in the end it would still cost me some money instead of earn me some money.

Long story short, I took the offer and so now I am headed to Rottenburg Germany to train/play for their first division team for 7/8 months. Again I think this can serve as a pretty good overview of some things to think about if you are hesitant about playing overseas. hopefully as I get over there and am able to write about my time actually playing in Germany, the picture will become more clear of what the experience can be like.