No one on St. Clair campus to share Saints’ celebration of national college baseball title
Matt Bondy made a quick switch from a nationally honoured MVP baseball player Sunday to full-time landscaper Monday.
A business and marketing student at St. Clair College, Bondy is also an all-star third baseman for the Saints’ baseball team, which captured the Canadian college championship Sunday in Oshawa.
Instead of returning to a hero’s welcome on campus Monday, Bondy was helping out with his dad’s landscaping business.
“It’s probably our busiest time of the year,” said Bondy. “We’re still cutting grass, doing leaf cleanup and burlap.”
Normally, he doesn’t work when he’s going to school, but Bondy hasn’t had any classes for the past 2½ weeks because of a strike by 12,000 instructors at community colleges across Ontario.
Varsity sports have continued despite the labour disruption.
“It was a little bit different,” Bondy said of winning a national title and not having the feat recognized on campus beyond the staff still working at the college’s SportsPlex.
Bondy went two-for-three with two RBIs in a 3-2 Canadian final over Fanshawe College Sunday, earning him MVP honours for the championship.
“Normally, they would have had a luncheon or something for them,” Saints’ manager Dave Cooper said. “With the kids going back to school it would be a chance for them to puff out their chest walking through the hallways. They’re missing out on that.”
Saints’ athletic co-ordinator Ted Beale said the college will recognize the team at a future basketball home game.
“They kind of came back to a different feel on campus,” Beale said. “The kids were probably looking forward to coming to school the next day. It’s kind of an odd situation, but what can you do?”
Fifth-year pitcher Kyle Breitner was named a tournament all-star like Bondy.
He tossed a complete game twohitter in Saturday’s semifinal and struck out 11. His final whiff gave him 300 career strikeouts, but there’s no chance to relive the moment with friends in the student lounge this week.
“There is a letdown,” the 26-yearold from Mississauga said. “We just win a big championship and people know about it, but you’re not getting that same feeling of excitement to it. No congratulatory message from a teacher or someone else at school.”
Instead, Breitner finds himself trying to pick up extra hours at his part-time job at The Beer Store.
Both he and his teammates hope the strike ends soon.
“I was definitely looking forward to graduating this year,” said Breitner, who switched programs halfway through his college career and is now finishing up in sport and recreation management. “If I lose a semester and have to go back to school in the fall, that just puts me behind in starting my life.”
While the baseball season is over, other varsity teams are just ramping up their seasons in volleyball and basketball.
The St. Clair men’s basketball team played its regular-season home opener last weekend. Coach Ricardo Tate has five out-of-town players on the roster but so far none have left Windsor to go back home during the strike.
“They’ve all been staying around, going to practice,” Tate reports. “The one great thing is that (the strike) doesn’t affect sports but that’s good and bad. At the end of the day they’re students and now they’re not getting the education they’re paying for.”
The kids were probably looking forward to coming to school the next day. It’s kind of an odd situation.