My name is Cameron Mitchell and I am a professional basketball player, currently playing for the Warrnambool Seahawks in Australia. After graduating from Willamette University in 2010, I have played professional basketball in Mexico, Ireland,Chile, and Australia This blog gives the reader an insight about my experiences playing basketball overseas.

Tuesday, September 11, 2012

Available for 2012/2013 Season

My season ended in Australia, with my team narrowly missing the playoffs. While it was dissapointing not to make the playoffs, we finished strong, winning our last two games.
I am now available and need a job for the 2012/2013 season so if your interested email me at cammitchell0@gmail.com
Here is my latest highlight tape.


Monday, July 16, 2012

2012 Game Film

My second season in Warrnambool is coming to a close, and its not the way I wanted it to end. Despite a strong first half, we fell short of our goal of making back to the finals. With two games left, we failed to qualify for the playoffs. While it is a dissapointing finish, we still have 2 games left and need to finish strong to close out the year.
After the season ends, my roommate and I will do some travelling around Australia for a bit. If anyone out there reading this knows of any good spots, comment below. After that, its back home for a short offseason.
As my second season with the Warrnambool Seahawks comes to a close, I have edited and published one of our game tapes, highlighting my play. I hope to get another job playing overseas so if you need a import and you like my tape, shoot me an email at cammitchell0@gmail.com. Enjoy the film.

Saturday, April 7, 2012

Back Down Unda'

No foul here
So I'm back in warrnambool, Australia for my second season with the Warrnambool Seahawks of the Big V league. After losing in the championship last year, we are looking to go one better and take home the crown in 2012. So far, we are 2-1 after last weeks 12 point victory over sunbury. Because of Easter we get this weekend off and get back into things next week. As for me, I have dedicated this season to getting better every single day. I have started doing boxing training, which, although it is very difficult, has greatly helped my strength and agility this year. Along with boxing I am continuing to get in the gym and work on my game every day. This hard work not only helps me physically, but it helps a lot with my confidence going into games. If I know I've worked much harder than my opponent all week, I Am confident thAt my hard work will pay off and I will be successful. It sounds corny and cliche but all you can do is put in the hard work and give it 100%. Next weekend we have a tough two games, playing Chelsea at home on saturday night, and then heading to Southern Pennisula sunday for a matinee game. Updates to come.
 Here are a few links to articles from Warrnambool's newspaper about my return.

Cams back in 2012!!

Me training with the Melbourne Tigers




Tuesday, November 1, 2011

PDA's, Crazy Drivers, and some Espanol

 Whats up everybody? I have now been in Chile for 5 weeks and am starting to adjust to the new culture and way of life. I have been taking spanish classes in the mornings to try and better understand my teammates, coach, and friends. And I must say it has helped quite a bit. I am still a bit nervous to try and hit on a girl in the club in Spanish, but I can have short conversations now and I am starting to understand the language much better. I am getting used to the team and the coach and the practices. 
However, there are still a few things about Chile that puzzle me... One is the driving...Maybe this is a latin american thing (it was the same in Mexico and Costa Rica) but people here honk ALL THE TIME. There will be a lineup of three cars at a red light and they are all slamming on their horns... I just don’t get it. I thought South Americans were supposed to have that laid back attitude and not be in a rush so much.  Calm down people.. you'll get to where your going.
Another weird thing is the massive amounts of PDA in this country. In Chile, couples make out everywhere...and it is normal. In the middle of the sidewalk, in the super market, or anywhere else that they please. Noone seems to think its weird or gross. It reminds me of my middle/ high school days, where you would walk down the hall and see all the nasty couples making out right in front of everyone... Get a room
Me in valpairiso
On the court we have won 4 in a row and are 9-3, good enough for third place in the Central Region.  Part of the reason for our winning streak is named Torrington Cox. "Torrie" as we call him, is the other import on our team and  is a BEAST. He averages 4-5 dunks a game and has stupid bounce ( I have a cool 2 dunks on the season...no big deal). Watch Torrie posterize defenders here.
I wanted to give my followers a bit of info. about the rules of the league here, as they are a bit strange. There are 10 teams in the Central Region and 8 teams in the Southern Region. Right now we only play teams in the central. You play each team twice and the top 4 from each region advance to the next round.  If you advance, your record is back to 0-0 and you have to play the remaining 7 teams two times each. Then there are the playoffs (your record in the second round is used for seeding)  You can see the standings and statistics here.
Hope everyone is doing well and i'll keep the updates coming soon

Friday, September 30, 2011

Bienvenidos a Chile

Since my last blog post, I have returned home from Australia to Portland, where I stayed for 2 weeks. Last week I signed to play with Sagrados Corazones in Vina Del Mar, Chile. I have been down here in Chile for a week now and once again I find myself in a great situation. Vina Del Mar is a beatiful Chilean city right on the Pacific ocean.It is a major tourist attraction in Chile and I heard it gets crazy in the summer with all the visitors coming from abroad! Since I've been here, its been sunny all but 1 day.
5 minutes from my hotel
I live in a hotel in a great part of Vina. It is close to the center of the city, the beach, and many pubs and nightclubs, as well as a huge casino. The lovely workers of the hotel make us three meals a day, and are great cooks. In Chile, lunch is the biggest meal of the day. For "almuerzo", we eat a soup and salad for starters, then a main course of chicken, fish, or some kind of meat and then desert, or "postre"
I really an enjoying experiencing this new culture and I am getting along well with the coach and players. The language barrier is very frustrating at times, but I am doing Rosetta Stone to help learn Spanish. I may also enroll in a language school in Vina in the mornings. A few of my teammates speak English and one or 2 is fluent. They serve as our main translators when coach is giving us directions. (He is from Argentina and doesn't speak much English) When i'm not playing ball, I like to walk around the city and try and take it all in. There is so much to see and do and there are always so many people walking the streets, which makes it interesting. Living in Chile, where the average man is.... well lets just say not very tall, I get stared at often, as the Chileans don't see a 6'7 gringo everyday..
Sagrados Corazones
Our first game ended in a 6-6 tie... Now you may be thinking to yourself, thats a pretty low score, basketball games can't end in a tie. Well in this instance, 4 minutes into a game in Santiago (Chile's capital and largest city) there was a massive power outage in the city, causing millions of people to go without power for a few hours, including our team. Fortunately we had a game the next day and pleased our home crowd with a 68- 38 win. This weekend we have 2 games, the second one being against the league top team, "Boston College". It should be a great weekend to gauge where we are at as a team.

Monday, August 29, 2011

The Grand Finals

Whats up people? Hope everyones doing well.  The season in Australia just ended this past weekend, as we lost to Geelong in the grand final series, 2-1.
1,000 or so people packed our home stadium, "The Arc" for game 1 of the series. It was an amazing atmosphere and we won the game by 10 in overtime, despite being down by 16 pts in the 1st half.  It was a great win and was our 14th consecutive victory. Shout out to all of our fans for their great support all season.
Many of the Warrnambool faithful made the 2 hour trip the following week to watch the 2nd and 3rd games in Geelong. Unfortunately, the weekend didnt go too well for us. We lost game 2 by 16 and fell in the third game to end our season.
Here is a small news highlight about our semifinal win against Whittlesea.
Despite the sour end to the year, we have a lot to be proud of. The Seahawks made the grand final for the 1st time in 11 years and we finished the season 17-8. For me personally, I had a great year in Australia. I really enjoyed the team and the people of W'bool and am hoping to come back next year.
For now, I am unemployed for the first time in a while. I'm looking to play in Europe or  South America for this upcoming season, but havent received any offers yet. Tomorrow I am traveling to Sydney for a few days and then I head back to Portland a week from today.
Peace