Division III Players to Professionals...

To follow up on Natalie's post, I interviewed Mike Haiduc, Jose Garcia and Rashim "Shim" Lettsome.

Jose Garcia is playing basketball in Colima, Mexico which he considers a true dream come true. "A typical day for me is waking up for breakfast at 9 a.m., and then I have practice from 10:30 a.m. - 1:00 p.m. I then get a break for lunch and a 2 hour nap. Then I usually wake up to talk to my family and my daughter. I then have practice again from 7 p.m. - 9 p.m. After that, I will go back to my house for dinner, talk with my family once again and then go to bed," Garcia said. Garcia will be playing for this team until January 2009.




Mike Haiduc is playing basketball in Lemvig, Denmark. Haiduc loves living in Denmark but it was a little bit of a culture shock for him when first moving there. "So far it has been a great experience for me. It's the first time I've really lived on my own and I have loved it. However, I have to do laundry and dishes which was hard to get used to at first. It is not that big of a deal doing it any more. I've also had to learn how to cook a little a bit, which I struggled with for a while but now the meals I make are turning out pretty delicious. It's made it easier that most of the people here speak English so I havent had too hard of a time communicating. I guess this experience has helped me rely more on myself and not so much on others," Haiduc said. Haiduc will be back in Chicago in April 2009 if he does not play for another team after that.



Last but not least, Shim! Rashim Lettsome is playing for the St. Thomas National Basketball Team. He is eligble to play there because he was born in St. Thomas. "If I would have listened to people who told me I would never play basketball after high school, who knows where I would be now? I went from getting beat by a girl, to getting cut, then sitting on the bench, to 6th man, to starting in college and then to an all conference record holder," Lettsome said. Lettsome wakes up every morning and runs on the beautiful beaches of the Virgin Islands. Can we say, lucky?



Lettsome, Garcia and Hadiuc are on the road to a successful future in basketball! Good luck boys!!!