First Time Overseas Experience

Well hello my name is Corey Sanders. I wanted to start off by giving you a brief rundown of myself and the purpose of this website. I was not the best or did I play a significant role with my college teams. I had one thing going for me. My height. I am 7'0 feet tall and that was a gift I never really understood until my senior year of college. By then it was a little too late. But I guess people believed in me more than I believed in myself at the time.

I was really going through the motions until I met a guy who had played overseas and saw what the financial rewards could get you. In no way do I want you to think I am playing basketball only for money, what I mean is I saw how comfortable he was living with this career. I felt as if my dream could do the same.

In short, I have met people along the way that I will be friends with forever and I have seen some amazing things that no one could describe. Basketball provides opportunites that would not be possible if we werent participating in the sport.

I decided to do this guide because my family and I had no clue to what was going to happen or what to expect when I made it overseas to play basketball. I mean you are going to another country not a state. So, if anything happens you are pretty much on your own with few resources. I had only received an E-ticket, a contact name, a phone number, and the country I was going to. It was more trust and little knowledge.

Charlie Mandt

2005 Grand Valley State University Sports Hall of Fame Inductee.

http://gvsulakers.collegesports.com/genrel/090805aaa.html

"Charlie Mandt (Troy, Mich.) finished his career as one of the best all-around players in Grand Valley State men's basketball history. Mandt played in 117 games during his career, the second-highest total in Laker basketball annals. Charlie was a prolific scorer and shot blocker for the Lakers, ranking in top 10 of every single-season and career categories. Mandt ranks second all-time in blocked shots (163) and sixth all-time in points scored (1,448), and field goals made (604). Charlie holds three of the top six single-season totals for blocked shots. Mandt scored 406 points, pulled down 178 rebounds and blocked 45 shots as a junior, followed by a 539-point, 201-rebound and 53-block shot senior season. Charlie was named honorable mention all-american following his senior campaign and the 87 wins he was a part of during his career ranks as the top four-year career total in Laker history. Grand Valley State won one GLIAC regular season title, two GLIAC Tournament titles and qualified for the NCAA Division II National Tournament twice during his career. His senior year in 1992 Charlie was awarded the Player of the Year for the GLIAC."

After 4 years of playing ball for Grand Valley, I still had nearly 2 semesters of classes left to complete my degree. Instead of finishing, I went to Atlanta for a tryout with the Atlanta Hawks. I didn't make the team but I ended up playing for some semi-professional teams that summer in the USBL and the GBA. After some brief success in the semi-pro leagues and the bankruptcy of the GBA I went back to GVSU to complete my final two semesters for my degree in Communications and a minor in Philosophy.

I spent the next 10 years playing basketball all over the world in countries like China, Korea, England, France, Mexico, Latvia, Lebanon and Qatar.

I retired my pro-basketball shoes 3 years ago and now own a software company called LeagueUSA, Inc. with my brother, Marc. www.leagueusa.com. Its still sports related. Using the lessons learned at GV I helped build our customer base to over 3000 organizations, which is currently the largest user base in the recreation management industry.