LAKER TAKES HOME SILVER MEDAL
AT SEA GAMES
AUSTRALIA, THE UNITED STATES, THAILAND, CHINA—ALL COUNTRIES Lake Land shortstop, Oliver Dunn, has traveled to throughout his life to play baseball, easily earning him a title of international student athlete. In early December, Dunn (at bat) added the Philippines to that growing list, taking the field as a member of the Thailand national baseball team at the 2019 Southeast Asian (SEA) Games. He returned to Lake Land for finals week with a silver medal around his neck. The SEA Games is a biennial multi-sport event involving 11 Southeast Asian countries
composed of more than 10,000 athletes. The games, under supervision of the International Olympic Committee and the Olympic Council of Asia, provide smaller countries that might not have the opportunity to participate in the Olympic Games. Throughout the more than 50 year history of the games, Thailand sits at the top of the medal ranking with more than 5,700 gold, silver and bronze medals. Dunn started playing baseball as a kid in Melbourne, Australia, and later joined the state baseball league of Victoria. He eventually moved to the United States to play for Bay de Noc Community College in Michigan before transferring to Lake Land College in the fall of 2019. In the summer between that transfer, a scout with connections to the Thailand national baseball team contacted Dunn. Thailand needed more half-Thai players to secure its placement in the SEA Games and Dunn’s
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lineage of having a Thailand-born mother put him on the radar as a promising young prospect. From then on, Dunn spent most of his summer waiting for the opportunity to play in the SEA Games. “I was in Thailand for two months, and China for one month playing as a try-out for the team,” he said. Shortly after beginning the fall semester at Lake Land, Dunn heard news of his position on the Thailand national baseball team. Director of Athletics Bill Jackson worked with Dunn and his instructors to make sure that this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity still worked around his schedule at Lake Land. After months of anticipation and preparation, Dunn set out on his journey to the games. He began his trip flying into the densely-populated Manila, Philippines where he spent the night before taking a four hour drive to the athletes' village, where he would stay throughout the games. From the village, he watched legendary boxer and current senator of the Philippines,
