“The decision, yes and no. I had the opportunities, I could’ve gone and played overseas, play in Australia or something like that but my motivation now is to graduate as fast I can, finish up my degree and you know if I went over seas, it would’ve been a long hard road to make it anywhere in baseball so all I would’ve done is prolong the graduation process for me so not really no, I was ready to hang it up.
The biggest challenge is staying on top of everything, because since I no longer have baseball I decided to be ambitious and take 6 courses this semester at UBC along with a part time job, building that along with a long distance relationship, it’s a lot. But again, baseball’s given me that time management skill, that organizational skill and that work ethic to know that, it has to work. You know a lot of people who don’t have to perform in the classroom and on the field in college, would be like ‘ oh it’s just too hard’ but being a college athlete you can’t say it’s too hard, you just have to do it. And whatever it takes to get done is what you have to do. So the biggest challenge right now is probably trying to manage everything I currently have going on but like I said with that attitude, it’s not matter of will it work, it’s a matter of how will I make it work.
I invested so much thought into baseball and now that it’s over I kind of have to figure out what I want to do with the next chapter of my life and as far as career goes I honestly have no idea. My first goal right now like I said is to graduate as fast I can and then I will take it from there. Graduate, move to Calgary where my girlfriend is, kind of start a life over there and see where opportunities arise after that.” – Liam Stroud, Retired Baseball Pitcher. (6/7)