By: Remy Balmain

 

Quentin McCray is a junior at the University of Oregon and is a member of the Club Baseball team, and has been since his sophomore year. Quentin is an outfielder for the team and is also one of the team’s fundraising chairs. When asked about his experience on the baseball team he stated, “The club baseball team has become one of my main focuses at the UO and my teammates have become my brothers. [I am] constantly surrounded by people who are passionate about the same thing that I am and I have such a strong support group whether it be in baseball or in school.”

Quentin has been playing baseball since he was four years old, playing all the way up through his high school varsity team. Quentin dedicated a majority of his childhood to baseball- and his senior year, he decided that he did not want to play college baseball, “After high school, I had been really burnt out from the sport and I wanted to focus my energy on school and new interests during college.” Growing up, he had dealt with many pressures from his family and coaches to be the best-but he did not feel that he could live up to that expectation. Therefore, Quentin did not participate in Club Baseball during his freshman year on campus, deciding that it was time to move on from the sport.

After taking this year long hiatus, he decided that he made a mistake and that baseball was his passion, and that he should try out for the club baseball team. He had felt that he had been attempting to fill the void of baseball with partying, but he was not satisfied. He also felt that he had too much time on his hands during his freshman year to get into trouble and he began to see an impact on his happiness. In order to get back into a healthier lifestyle, he decided to try out for the club baseball team. He was one of eight players to make the team out of sixty that had tried out- a sign that he was more than just a “good” player.  Quentin realized that he was extremely talented and that he should not waste his skills. In addition, his experience has been rewarding because his best friend, Alex Jaffe, also joined the team their sophomore year. Alex agrees with Quentin and said, “We have really found a balance between athletics, schoolwork, and building friendships, which was difficult for [us] to find freshman year, before joining the team.” Quentin plans to participate in Club Baseball for the remainder of his college career because of the positive impact it has made on his experience. One goal that Quentin has as one of the fundraising chairs is to continue to work to raise funds for the team to build more opportunities for talented players to have access to the Club Baseball team, who possibly could not afford it before.