With Hounds Michael Colebrook it's all academic . . . and strikes!

Michael Colebrook has filled his time at Assumption College pursuing excellence in and out of the classroom. In addition to his studies, he is a three-time captain of the baseball team which advanced to the Northeast-10 Conference championship game and subsequently to the last year’s N.C.A.A regional playoffs.

As a student athlete, he is determined that academics must come first. Colebrook is a French and philosophy double major and works at the College’s Academic Support Center as a tutor in both of those subjects.

He has studied out-of-the-country in Quebec and at the Sorbonne in Paris. He has spent a great deal of time unable to communicate in English in class and has joked, "well my French got a lot better, for one." But, on a serious note, he added, "politically and historically it helped me to come to a lot of insights about things."

After graduation, he will go to graduate school and some day teach philosophy at the college level.

The mainstay of the Greyhound pitching staff has posted a 14-10 career record---the third winningest lefthander in the program’s 97-year history-- with over 200 innings of work for Coach George Reidy. He is just the third person in the program’s history to serve as a team captain for three years.

He was named third-team all-conference as a sophomore and has earned all academic honors in each of his seasons with the Greyhounds.

One of the outstanding student-athletes on campus, he has been named to the Student-Athlete Honor Roll with a Director’s Citation in recognition of a 3.5 grade point average or higher for his six semesters on campus. He spent the fall 2008 semester studying at the Sorbonne and posted a 4.0 grade-point average this past fall.

Presented the College’s Boivin Scholarship for French/foreign languages, he was also selected an Augustine Scholar---the premier award the College grants for excellence in academics, leadership, character and service. He was a winner of the Berthiaume Memorial Award presented to student-athletes who "go above and beyond" in all areas of competition and leadership.

He constantly reminds himself that his athletics experience is also a major portion of his progression in life.

He spoke at the department’s September Candlelight Reflection as all Greyhound student-athletes come together to celebrate the start of a “new” season of competition. They have discovered that athletics plays an important role in the development and education of all students.

“It is clear, in retrospect, that the early Olympic games expressed impulses and desires that remain an integral part of what it means to be a human being,” reflected Colebrook. “These first athletes expressed a form of striving and competition that distinguished humans from every other animal, hinting at a singular and unique characteristic that goes beyond base desires, the struggle for subsistence, or the pursuit of wealth.

“Athletics was, and still remains, a means for human beings with various backgrounds to come together and celebrate a central aspect of their humanity. It gives individuals an opportunity to overcome themselves physically and mentally. The pride and honor resulting from a hard-fought victory, as well as the humility we experience after a tough loss, remind us time and time again that we feel most alive while pushing ourselves to the limits out on the playing field.

It then is up to us as individuals to make this seed grow, and ultimately turn potentiality into actuality.

His opponents are constantly reminded that facing Colebrook, whether in the batters box or in the classroom, they’re in for a stern struggle.