AA St. Paul Saints

Saints Pitcher Jake Schmidt Discovering the Inner Working of Team Chemistry

Published on June 22, 2011 under American Association (AA)
St. Paul Saints News Release


St. Paul, MN (June 22, 2011) - In every baseball clubhouse there are different cliques and groups that naturally gravitate toward each other. St. Paul Saints pitcher Jake Schmidt is well on his way to discovering why that is and how a baseball team becomes a cohesive unit.

The 23-year-old Schmidt may be a pitcher by day and night for the Saints, but he is also a student with The College of St. Scholastica. During the 2011 season Schmidt has immersed himself into a four-credit, eight-week, online course in sociology. Although the course runs on an accelerated schedule, it shares the same learning outcomes as its traditional, semester-long, face-to-face counterpart.

Schmidt has excelled on the mound, earning All-Star status in 2010 and starting off 2011 with a handful of solid performances. But his experience in a small community such as a baseball team and his goal of working as a cop when his playing days are done steered him in the direction of taking the sociology course with St. Scholastica.

"Our schedule is non-stop during the baseball season, whether we're on a bus or at the ballpark I've always got something going on," said Schmidt. "The course with St. Scholastica allows me to bring my iPad wherever I'm at and not miss a beat. I plan on bringing the same intensity I have on the mound to my coursework this year."

St. Scholastica, which has a campus in St. Paul, is an official sponsor of the Saints through the 2011 season.

Don Wortham, Executive Director of Extended Studies at St. Scholastica, said this promotion is a tangible example of the accessibility of online education.

"The unique sponsorship we have with the Saints underscores the accessibility and convenience of online education," said Wortham. "In many ways, Jake Schmidt is a typical working adult student- balancing demands of courses with his current job- he just happens to be a minor league baseball player. We're very glad that Jake's part of the Scholastica learning community."

The numbers behind online education growth showcase its rising popularity. According to the Sloan Consortium, a professional organization devoted to online learning, more than 5.5 million college students took an online course in 2009, the most recent year for which data is available, and the percentage of college students taking online courses rose from less than 10 percent in 2002 to more than 29 percent in 2009.

Check out the St. Paul Saints Statistics

Share: Facebook | Twitter/X | LinkedIn | Reddit | Email



American Association Stories from June 22, 2011


The opinions expressed in this release are those of the organization issuing it, and do not necessarily reflect the thoughts or opinions of OurSports Central or its staff.

OurSports Central