The Randolph-Macon College Men’s Basketball team returned to Ashland Wednesday after an eight-day team trip to Costa Rica, the second such expedition in the program’s history.

Seventeen players, coaches, and staff made the trip after ten days of practice for a series of exhibition games.

The team kicked off their visit in San Jose with a tour of the historic city, as well as shopping in the San Jose Historic District. Their first game was a convincing win against Colegio de Abogados in San Jose on Wednesday, August 4 with a final score of 102-51.

The setting for their second game, which the Yellow Jackets won 105-51, was in the small city of San Carlos in the jungle in a gym that was partially outside. “With the river flowing by, and windows looking out onto a dense rainforest, it felt like Donkey Kong was going to come out at any time and challenge us to a game,” joked Ian Robertson ‘22.

The Yellow Jackets also went whitewater rafting as a team and explored the rainforest and the volcanic hot springs in the highlands region.

The last few days of the trip were spent in the beach town of Tamarindo. The Yellow Jackets used the waterfront setting of La Playa de Flamingo to work on conditioning with agility drills on the beach and an early morning run as a team. 

“We just challenged ourselves in different ways as a team while we’ve been here,” explained David Funderburg ’22.

A major highlight of the trip was a visit to a basketball clinic for at-risk youth. “It was a real joy to see the kids and spend time with them. Something that really stuck out to me was just the passion and the joy that they had for the game,” noted Noah Lindsay ’23, who also enjoyed playing soccer with the children. “Those were two great experiences that I will remember for a really long time.”

 

The Yellow Jackets faced off against the U21 Costa Rican National Team in their last game of the trip, clinching a victory to bring their trip record to 3-0. The U21 team is made up of the best players across Costa Rica aged 21 and younger.

“I just feel really lucky and blessed, and grateful to the administration and the alumni who were able to make this happen,” said Will Coble ’24 who celebrated his birthday with the team while in Costa Rica.

The Yellow Jackets have made several overseas trips, including a visit to Barbados in 1982, and multiple trips to Chile, the most recent of which was in 2012. Men’s Basketball Coach Josh Merkel coordinated the logistics of the trip with partners in Costa Rica, and alumni and friends of the program donated to help make the trip a reality.

Coach Merkel says that the opportunity to travel is beneficial to the team in a variety of different ways. “There is the obvious, of offering the guys a chance to see the world and experience another culture and language. There is a sense of gratitude for all the blessings we have when you get outside your own bubble,” he said. “And there is the shared experience and connection of the adventures, the sharing of meals, all the time together on the bus and training without WiFi or phone usage.”

The exhibition series also gives the Men’s Basketball Team some extra time on the court before their regularly scheduled season games. Merkel continued, “At our level, this is also a unique opportunity to work with our players for 10 days leading up to the trip. We get to try some new things and learn a lot about each player – what he has been working on and what gaps he needs to be working on the most. While on the trip we continue to train, to test their limits, so that each guy comes back a different person and player than before this experience,” said Merkel.