‘IT AIN’T OVER TILL IT’S OVER’
Saratoga and UAlbany graduate Nick Kondo commits to 2019 DIII National Champion, Chapman University, for final season
Four years ago Nick Kondo was finishing up his senior year at Saratoga Springs High School, preparing to move on to play college baseball at UAlbany. While he always knew he would pursue a further degree in graduate school, he never expected that he would be going through the recruiting process again as well.
“As soon as the season got cancelled, I was constantly on Twitter checking for news on eligability and I was so happy when it came out that I’d be able to play another year. I’m going to try to make the most of it,” Kondo said.
“There were two things that I knew were certain. One is that I was studying business. The other that I was playing baseball.”
On Friday June 16, 2020 the Saratoga and UAlbany graduate announced that he has committed to Chapman University, in Orange, California. There he will play out his final season of collegiate baseball and pursue his masters in business administration.
While he will be transferring from a Division 1 program to Division 3, the expectations won’t be any less. The Panthers are the reigning NCAA Division 3 World Series Champions from 2019.
“Baseball was a bug part of my grad school search. The way I look at it, it was an opportunity to play another year, although it was unfortunate that the season was cancelled. The first thing I did when looking at grad schools was reach out to the baseball coaches. Once I found some good fits, that’s when I started looking at MBA programs and going through the admissions process,” he said.
Kondo graduated from UAlbany after majoring in business administration with a dual concentration in finance and information systems and business analytics.
“I knew that I wanted to go into business, but I wasn’t sure in what area. There’s marketing management and all these other concentrations. I was set on finance and then I was able to combine it with IT, which I thought would benefit me, even if I didn’t go into the tech industry. I wanted to build my skill set and expand my options,” he explained.
While he initially thought he would be a banker or investor on Wall Street, “like every finance major wants to,” Kondo found a passion in business analytics, an area that he could relate to sports as well as several other areas.
Kondo plans on putting his entrepreneurial spirit into action, while studying for his MBA.
“The way I look at it is that if you don’t have anything to apply it to, then it’s really just an extra two years of school,” he said.
“After working with a startup that inspired me to start my own company with a partner and what we want to do is work with sports startup companies and help bring them off the ground. I think that with my background in college baseball and professional sports can be a huge asset.”
“I’m hoping I can correlate that with my MBA and learn as I go.”
While playing college baseball had always been a dream for Kondo, he will now be able to live out the dream of playing baseball everyday in Southern California, about 30 miles south of Los Angeles.
He spoke about the moment that he realized his senior season at UAlbany would be cut short and the team bus would have to turn around.
“I vividly remember the day the NCAA suspended all sports. When I woke up that morning, I had a slight idea it was a possibility. Once reality hit, it was really tough. I thought that my career had ended and it was a terrible feeling. I thought I had played my last game of college baseball,” Kondo said. He continued. “Then I had in the back of my mind, maybe I have a full year left. Going through that really put in perspective to play every game as it it was your last. It was a really weird feeling of negativity and optimism at the same time.”
The journey out to Chapman will be much different than any of Kondo’s previous experiences, especially after having known Jon Mueller, the UAlbany head coach, since he was 12 years old.
“It’s not like I felt like I needed to be close to home, but the benefits of being close to home were always there. If I ever needed anything I was always right there,” he said. “I liked the coaches and we had a good relationship. I liked the vibe of UAlbany.”
While Mueller would have loved to have him back as a Great Dane one last season, he knows that Kondo was ready to move on.
“When you play four years at an institution, you’ve really fulfilled your obligation,” Mueller said. “We’ll be cheering him on and wishing him nothing but the best in whatever he decides to do with his extra year of eligability.”
Kondo will be starting new at Chapman, but adjusting to playing college baseball in something he has done before. For his brother Christian, a senior this year at Saratoga Springs High School, that journey might be a bit more difficult.
“We are definitely at very different points in our lives. I feel for high school seniors who are going to have to go into a college baseball program after not playing for a year. I remember jumping from high school to freshman year and I remember how difficult it was to do,” Kondo said while thinking about his brother’s upcoming freshman season at Stetson University in Central Florida, who also was recovering from a foot injury.