Eagles Abroad gives us the chance to talk to our Eagles who are over in college.

In our second edition of ‘Eagles Abroad’ we were able to get the opportunity to chat with Bailey Van Hout who has just finished his first year at University of Southern Maine and is loving the college life.  

 

How did you and your team perform this past season?

Team performed okay, we struggled early but finished strong. We were very good at home and very bad away from home, we were 7-3 at home but 2-12 on the road and 1-1 on neutral sites, finishing up at 10-16. So in terms of our record we underperformed but we were playing great basketball towards the end of the year.

 

How are you going with managing your workload of both basketball and school? What is your average day scheduled like?

The school workload is certainly an adjustment, especially considering I was somebody that didn’t do as much as they should in year 12.  Basketball wise we practice 6 days a week for 2.5 hours, so again another big step up. My average schedule is usually an 8am wakeup to sneak some breakfast in before classes. Then anywhere from 3-7 hours of class, eating whenever I can in between classes. Most days I get individual shots up between classes also and then we practice at 7 so have to be at the sports complex at 6.

 

What are the facilities like at your college? How do they compare to back home in Australia?

The facilities are a lot better than I was expecting considering it is not a huge school (10,000 or so students). We have all sorts of medical equipment that the trainers all sort for us when we describe any pains or tightness we have. We have a gym that is in the same facility as the court and also a full indoor track that we have full access too.

 

What have you missed the most while you were at college?

Friends, Family and sausage rolls.

 

What is the atmosphere like during games? The crowd? The stadiums?

The atmosphere at games is really good, our gym is on campus so we get a big population of students at the game who make it good fun to be a part of and I’m sure pretty tough on the opposition. We average 500 or so to home games, with our town of Gorham night packing the gym with plenty of loud kids and families.

 

Have you got any advice for young players who dream to go to college?

My advice would be to just go to as many sessions as you can, when I was in U16s I was training in the mornings with 12-year-old girls at times. Just get to any session, with any coach, they’ll all help your game.

 

What was the best game you were part of this season?

We actually had a 5 overtime game so that was without a doubt the best game of the year. Had everything from game tying half court shots to freshman playing their first minutes hitting game sealing shots, was exactly what people tell you about the “madness” of college basketball.  We set a school record for longest game, most points in a game and had an individual player play over 60 minutes.

 

 

What plans have you got for the offseason?

Biggest thing for me is to get stronger to deal with the big strong bodies that are over there. Also get more consistent shooting and driving the ball to be able to better play the 3 man position.

 

Keep up the great work Bailey and we will be looking forward to the progress you make over in college.

Stay tuned to see who will be the next college athlete we will be talking to....