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A Whole New Ballgame

Photo credit: Miles Fitzner Photography

Julian Rip, ’21, M.S. ’23, has played baseball most of his life, including on the Netherlands national team. But in his new career with the Atlanta Braves, Rip isn’t on the field. Instead, he’s helping prospects in the minor leagues perform at the top of their game.

Rip, a strength and conditioning coach for the Braves, oversees 30 to 40 athletes in their High-A team, creating their programming, recovery and training regimens. He travels with the team and gets them warmed up before a game, and ensures they follow recovery procedures after.

It’s a big responsibility, since these are players the Braves have made an investment in. But Rip enjoys helping people achieve their goals. “I had a guy who started with me who’s now a regular in the Major League,” he says. “Just to assist him in his process and make his career dream come true, that makes me like the job I do.”

Although Rip himself once dreamed of playing professionally in the United States, he found himself at a crossroads after college. He missed the MLB draft cut, due to a smaller post-COVID pool, and had just helped his Netherlands team win two European Baseball Championships. His team also finished in the top 10 at the World Baseball Championships. It seemed like a good time to go out on a high note and focus on a different aspect of the sport.

After graduating from USC Upstate with an interdisciplinary studies degree that focused on exercise science and psychology, Rip went on to get a master’s in exercise and sport science. During that time, he worked as a graduate assistant in the Spartans weight room, where he was responsible for most of the athletic teams.

That training and his experiences as an athlete have provided him with unique insights into the players he’s assisting now.

“When I played, I had really good years and really bad years, where I was the best player or the worst player on the team,” he says. “Having gone through that for multiple years allows me to understand what the guys are going through and make the needed adjustments in my programming to get them ready for the game.”

Rip notes that since these are professional athletes, they’re already competing at a high level. “But if you can help a guy get just one percent better, that could be a career deciding factor,” he says. “So having that conversation with them, and helping them out over the next couple of years and seeing them succeed in their career, that’s what makes me go to my job every day.”