Josh Jedretich

Baseball has influenced my life and has further demonstrated the importance of qualities such as dedication, discipline and perseverance in the short time I have played. Compared to lots of other players I had a late start into the baseball community starting to play club ball at 15 at the North Coburg Rebels baseball club in the winter of 2019, I quickly realized that baseball was a sport that I would grow to love, and with a cricket background I had a basic understanding and skill set to develop and work hard at. I had my first real taste of quality competition during that season playing at the State Winter Championships against other teams from the different leagues around Victoria, I enjoyed training hard and seeing that pay off when we won the tournament. The experience of playing representative baseball cemented in my mind that this was something I wanted to do and see what I could achieve in a sport with lots of opportunities. During the 2019/20 summer season I played my first season at Essendon Baseball club at both junior and senior level, I was able to train with lots of good players and some who had been to college and experienced the life of a college athlete. During these conversations I slowly realized that that was a road I wanted to go down and that I would work hard to achieve that. During that summer season I had a number of coaches and players that helped me to develop my game and also my understanding of the game to a point where I could compete with ballplayers who have played at a high level and played for a large part of their life. I was lucky enough to be in 2 competitive teams and played in 2 grand finals in the u16 state league and senior division 1 4ths, even with mixed success I learned alot from those 2 games. At all times it is always important to keep your head up and play a good brand of baseball that keeps your teammates up and dosen’t let the team's liveliness fall. I also learnt that when you work hard and everyone in the team does their 1/9th success feels a whole lot better and It was one of my prouder moments of the summer season to win a senior premiership with some of the men that had helped me both on and off the field during the season. The values that baseball has instilled in me, has also translated to the classroom. I have realized even more the importance of study, dedication and prioritizing academics and baseball. I am a very driven person and I would like to teach physical education at secondary school level. Baseball can provide me with a pathway to gain the adequate qualifications to achieve and experience this in a college athlete community, where I can flourish and excel with like minded people who can assist each other in their successes.

Competitive, Athletic, Driven, Team-orientated, Composed, Coachable, Respectful, Adaptable

Bo Bichete