Walking onto a Division I team might be a challenging task to do, but it is even harder when one hasn’t played in four years, according to Chayse Hood, a 24-year-old Eaton, Ohio native, who overcame that challenge when he walked onto Miami University’s baseball team, when just a few months ago, he was still enlisted in the Marines.
Hood originally played baseball with Sinclair Community College for a year after not being able to get onto a Division I team out of high school. The plan was to transfer after one year; however, Hood had mixed feelings. Even though he still loved baseball, he wanted something more challenging.
“I don’t know what got my mind set on the Marine Corps. I guess I had a lot of buddies that enlisted—so I ended up enlisting. I did four years, one tour to Afghanistan of last year, recently got out about three months ago, and enrolled into Miami University,” said Hood.
According to Hood, he got his challenge. For anyone who has been in the Marines, they know exactly what Hood was getting into.
“Bootcamp was crazy, from what I can remember of it. You show up, step on those yellow footprints and it goes straight to hell from right there. You are up for the first 48 hours straight before you get sleep. That was a struggle. It was a terrible time going through boot camp,” said Hood.
He began to enjoy the Marines after boot camp, where his main job was a surveyor, but he didn’t do it much. He was mainly a combat engineer, where he worked on building structures.
In March of 2014, he was deployed to Afghanistan, where he spent the next six months of his life. He said they let him know several months prior that he was on the list to go, which resulted him being sent to California for pre-deployment, as well. Hood didn’t see any action since the troops have been pulling out.
“Our mission was called ‘de-mil,’ where we tore down Bastion and Leatherneck. Since the U.S. military is pulling out, we had to tear down all the structures and stuff we had built up,” said Hood.
The Marines was a great experience for Hood. He said he would have regretted it if he hadn’t had chose to go down that path. However, Hood still had a passion to play baseball.
“The only time I ever picked up a bat was when I was in Afghanistan. I found a bat and some golf balls and just hit them out into the desert. It made me miss baseball a lot when I got out,” he said.
Hood left the Marines because he wanted to play baseball again, and he wanted to get a degree. He picked Miami University to continue his education with a major in Sports Management. Miami was close to home and he said he wanted to be close to his family after being away for four years. He had plenty of credits from the military that transferred to Miami so he started at the university as a junior, instead of a freshman or sophomore.
According to Hood, Miami University’s website posted that they were having walk-on tryouts, and that’s where he got his chance.
“I went to the baseball office, filled out some paperwork, did my physical, and showed up to the walk-on tryouts and just… played,” said Hood.
His goals are to just graduate with a degree, and hopefully work for a big time sports team in the future. With help from the Marines, he said he has become a better leader, has more confidence, while evolving in areas of life that he might not have been able to. He said he hopes these skills will carry him throughout school and get him where he wants to be.
Matt Summers
Sports Editor