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Former Tech pitchers Devin Burke and Jake Joyce both came back to campus this fall to complete their degrees and both graduated on December 19 as part of the Virginia Tech Fall 2014 Commencement. Below is a Q&A with Burke, who after the 2013 season was signed by the Colorado Rockies and has pitched for the organization ever since. Here's a link to his minor league page.

Q: You graduated with a degree in what?
DB: I graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in Foreign Languages in Spanish.

Q: At your time of departure, how close were you to graduating?
DB: At the time I was signed by the Colorado Rockies (June 2013), I believe I was still about 15 credits short, but 9 of those I still needed to complete my Spanish degree requirements. I took one online class that summer and into the fall, then a 2-week intensive winter term class in January, which counted for 3 credits towards my degree. This left me with 9 credits for this fall that I needed to complete, 6 of which had to be Spanish.

Q: Why did you decide to come back to get your degree?
DB: I decided to come back to get my degree now because this felt like the perfect time to do it. I wanted to be able to say I had graduated college so that I would not have to come back years later to finish up only 9 credits worth of school. It just made sense to get it over with now, so that I could fully dedicate all my efforts to my baseball career.

Q: Was it harder or easier than you thought it would be? Why?
DB: It was hard getting back into college mode at first, having been removed from it for so long, but at the end of the day it was not so bad only having to complete 9 credits, 3 of those being an online class. I feel like I managed my time well and really made it a memorable last semester for me.

Q: What was the toughest thing/biggest obstacle to overcome with coming back?
DB: The hardest part of being back was having to leave at the end and realize that this was all over. In addition to realizing that the school aspect had finally come to an end, for me it will always be the people you meet that you’ll remember. I knew a lot of the guys that were still on the baseball team and they happened to be some of my closest friends when I was last on the team—my last season here we were essentially a family. Having to say good-bye for good to those guys wasn’t easy, but at the very least I can say that we definitely made it a very fun and memorable last semester here at VT.

Q: What things at Tech prepared you for playing minor league baseball?
DB: One of the things at Tech that prepared me for pro ball was definitely the competition. It seemed like every weekend we were playing and I was pitching against a top 25 team in the ACC. And facing those hitters and teams, as talented as they were, definitely prepared me very well for the teams I would be pitching against professionally.

Q: You are still playing ... but afterwards, what do you think you'll do?
DB: For me, I would like to keep playing baseball for as long as I can. This is an opportunity that was given to me and I do not plan on wasting it because I am not sure if I will ever get another one. I love everything about the game of baseball and in the future after I am done playing, I would love to stay around the game and be involved somehow, whether it be coaching or working in the front office of a team, I am not sure, but I am sure I would like to stay around the game after I am done playing. And if that does not pan out, perhaps pursue a career in the National Hockey League (haha).

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