Lebreux earns Davenport scholarship with Virginia Cavaliers

OF Marc-Antoine Lebreux (Sainte-Anne-des-Plaines, Que.) earned Canadian Baseball Network all-Canadian College Second Team honors in 2019 and Honorable Mention in 2018.

By Jacques Lanciault

Quebec’s Mr. Baseball

Mirabel, Que. - In a speech delivered on Nov. 24, 1992, Queen Elizabeth II called the year 1992 annus horribilis ... The Latin expression meaning “horrible year” can certainly be applied to 2020 … so many people have died here and all over the world.

Admittedly, it would be inappropriate to qualify the baseball year 2020 using the same expression, but let’s say that the year is at the very least very difficult for top Quebec baseball players.

Not only was the winter-spring 2020 season in American universities and colleges canceled in mid-March, but for players returning to Quebec for the summer, the season of the Quebec Elite Junior Baseball League only started in July, a season shortened to around 20 games, around 30 for the players of the teams which reached the final of the playoffs…

Then, despite the better summer, the situation began to be critical again … and it became more and more difficult to train.

Despite everything, as we mentioned in a previous text, more than 50 Quebec players are currently in American universities and colleges.

We asked some of the situation in their institutions…

The first in a series on the subject ...

Marc-Antoine Lebreux got off to a great start in his first season in NCAA Division 1. Taking part in 18 games, the Quebec athlete hit for an average of .303, with two homers and 14 RBIs.

After having had an impressive start last winter with the University of Virginia Cavaliers, participating in each of the 18 games played before the decree of activities, Lebreux was back at the end of August in Charlotteville, Va., where his university is located ... after a long hike of more than 12 hours by car.

The young man from Sainte-Anne-des-Plaines in Quebec quickly noticed that in one year the situation had changed a lot where he studied and played.

“First, on the educational side, all my courses are online,” he tells us by email. “I never go to school for my lessons. Here is the way to work, but it is not the norm everywhere. In the schools of a few of my friends the rules are different. It really depends on the school, I guess. “

But on the baseball side, it’s different. Indeed, the University of Virginia team trains and even plays games, inter-team meetings, but ball games nonetheless.

“I’m really lucky because we’re one of the only teams in the US that started training in August. We were told that apparently there were only teams from four or five universities who also started training as a team in late August and early September.”

Playing for the Saint-Eustache Bisons of the Quebec Elite Junior League, he says “everything is different with COVID.“

“First, we are tested very often to make sure we don’t have COVID.“

“Then we had to adapt to a lot of different stuff. Our coaches and the school have put in place good preventive measures. We have to wear masks … even in the field. Obviously, we also wear it during weight training sessions, like in batting cages. “

“In fact, wherever we go, we have to wear the mask, so yes it’s different, but you get used to it. “

To the question “Do you play games?” “, Marc-Antoine replied “only inter-squad matches.”

“There are no games played against teams from other universities. The NCAA’s Atlantic Coast Conference cancelled all games for the fall season.

In these clashes, Marc-Antoine is performing just as well as at the start of the 2020 winter season ... and he believes that his team will still be very competitive during the 2021 winter-spring season.

“I think we’re going to have a big advantage over the other teams in our conference because we were able to train as a team as early as August.”

Recall that Marc-Antoine maintained a batting average of .303 knocking in 14 runs in 18 games during the shortened season. At the time of the cessation of activities, his team had a thunderous start to the season, posting a record of 14 wins against only four losses.

The 21-year-old seems to be a model of consistency, he kept the same hitting average of .303 in 10 games this summer with the Bisons de Saint-Eustache.

Before joining the ranks of the first division of the NCAA last winter, Marc-Antoine, a former Canadian junior national team member, had shone for two seasons with Seminole State College in Oklahoma, in Division I of the National Junior College Athletic Association.

If there is a winter season in 2021, the Quebec player will restart his third year of eligibility within the American baseball network, which will give him the opportunity to be back in the NCAA for his senior year in 2022.

In view of his return to the University of Virginia last August, Marc-Antoine Lebreux had received very good news during the summer ...

Indeed, he was selected by the team’s head coach and the university’s athletic director to receive the Ted Davenport Endowed Scholarship .

This scholarship is awarded to a returning player who has demonstrated academic ability and has the potential to make an outstanding contribution to the team.