bru

hey all. long time no post. i've spent the last 3 days traveling from klagenfurt to san diego. i decided it just wasn't a good fit for me in austria and finding a team there isn't what i was looking for. i need to be somewhere mediterranean and spanish speaking. with the economy it's a pretty bad year to make good money playing volleyball in europe. if the money can't be the reason i stay it would have to be location. not being able to speak german in austria would have lessened the experience and i was for sure feeling a small sample of that in small town austria where english is surprisingly rarely spoken. there are other teams to go check out, but not really where i wanted to be. after being there for the last 2 weeks it's clear to me that it's not just about playing volleyball anywhere in europe. for it to work for me i need to be able to feel like i can get into the culture. giving up what i have in san diego has to feel right and in austria it didn't.

so i'm officially back in the states for a while. i learned a ton about the game and how it works over there. on my first leg home on a train to salsburg i had a pretty good chat with a czeck republican that has been playing pro for a few years in a few countries. he represents himself without an agent and i plugged his brain for about three hours and got some good direction. specifically about the spanish league which is one of the most hurting leagues financially. they just aren't buying players this year, but regardless that's always been where i wanted to be for obvious reasons. i know i'd be a good player at least in the 2nd division and have no doubt there would be some interest if i could work something out with a club that didn't have to pay me what i was originally expecting. i'm going to try and market myself personally and not depend on the agency to contact teams. after seeing a little bit how it works it's definitely in my hands to get myself a job overseas. so for now the goal is spain and being creative on how to make it work. i have the confirmation that i am good enough to play pro there with a few references to back me up, so it's all about putting the pieces together now.