Amber McKenna

Features editor

Typical college athletes might split their time between practice, classes and a club or two.

Junior Don Bard spends his time between Linfield’s Portland and McMinnville campuses while training to become a nurse and playing first base on the baseball team.

Bard started his freshman year at Linfield majoring in pre-medical studies, but soon found nursing more appealing as a future career.

This fall, he enrolled in the Linfield Good Samaritan School of Nursing, where he lives on campus.

“I am a minority there,” Bard said. “I think my roommate, one other guy and I are the only male traditional students.”

Bard said being a nursing student is a challenge in itself. With labs and lectures, students are required to do clinicals, where they apply what they are studying by hands-on practice in a medical clinic. 

“Everyone is professional up there because we are actually starting our careers and not just taking classes,” he said.

Bard will start at the Oregon State Mental Health Hospital in Salem next week.

Because of his passion for nursing and baseball, Bard has a packed schedule. He drives down to McMinnville for baseball practices and games four to five times a week, and said including travel time, baseball takes up about 40 hours a week.

“With any student, academics is going to come first,” head baseball coach Scott Brosius said.

Every week he misses Tuesday practices because of his class schedule. Brosius said while his absence presents a challenge, Bard remains one of the hardest workers and most committed players on the team.

“It’s hard because Tuesdays are usually the days we scrimmage, and I wish I could be there,” Bard said.

Bard said he has been playing baseball since he was six years old, and he makes the commitment to the team because he knows if he didn’t play, he would regret missing the opportunity.

“It has always been a part of me,” he said.

Although Bard is a dedicated athlete, he said he has seen his performance take a hit. Brosius said all of Bard’s commuting has been taxing. Bard had a slow start at the plate this season, but it hasn’t affected the team as a whole.

“It has been tough for him, but he always handles these situations with class,” Brosius said. “He (still has) a desire for the game, which shows character.”

Bard said after graduating from the nursing program, he hopes to work in an emergency room or as an intensive care nurse. Eventually, he aims to complete a graduate program and work as a nurse anesthesiologist.

Friends joke with him and call him a “murse,” a male nurse, but he said he finds it hilarious and knows it is all in good fun.

“It helps a lot to have people support me,” Bard said. “Coaches and teachers have been understanding, and friends let me stay with them when I’m (in McMinnville).”