EASTON, Pa. — For nearly 15 years, current Lafayette baseball players and former Leopards have gathered at the New York Athletic Club for an annual tradition built around a simple idea: the relationships formed through Lafayette Baseball should extend far beyond the final out.

The Friends of Lafayette College Baseball Committee is dedicated to ensuring that current Leopards have the resources, mentorship and opportunities they need to excel both on and off the field. Through programmatic enhancements including recruiting support, player development, and academic and career initiatives, the Friends are committed to strengthening the Lafayette Baseball experience and preparing student-athletes for success during their time on College Hill and well beyond the diamond.

One of the clearest examples of that mission in action is the annual Lafayette Baseball Career Night. Career Night has connected current players with former Leopards representing a wide range of industries and career paths. The goal isn't simply to exchange business cards or make LinkedIn connections. It is to create relationships, expose players to careers they may never have considered, provide mentorship and, when possible, turn those relationships into meaningful professional experiences.

For junior catcher Jonathan Decker '28, one conversation at last year's Career Night did exactly that.

It ultimately led to an internship with former Lafayette shortstop Brian Davila '12, introduced Decker to the world of commercial real estate, and gave him the confidence to begin tapping into a much larger network of Lafayette alumni.

It is also an example of what can happen when one generation of Leopards makes the decision to pay it forward to the next.
 

One Conversation Opens a Door

A native of Ridgefield, Connecticut, Decker grew up attending the King School, where his father serves as Director of Athletics and his mother teaches second grade. After graduating, he completed a postgraduate year at the Hotchkiss School before arriving at Lafayette.

Now an economics major with a minor in data science who is also pursuing Lafayette's certificate in Financial Policy and Analysis, Decker knew he was interested in finance. What he didn't know was exactly where that interest might take him.

Commercial real estate wasn't on his radar.

"I honestly had no clue that commercial real estate was a career path before meeting Brian at Career Night last year," Decker said.

Davila's path offered an interesting parallel.

A native of Ellicott City, Maryland, Davila graduated from Lafayette in 2012 after playing four years for the Leopards at shortstop and studying economics and business with a focus in finance.

Following graduation, he moved to New York City and spent five years with Turner Construction. When he decided he wanted to transition into sales, he did something that would sound familiar to any Lafayette graduate: he began networking.

A connection with a fellow Lafayette classmate Steve Reynolds '12 eventually helped Davila make the move into commercial real estate sales in 2017.

Years later, Davila found himself on the other side of that equation.

At Lafayette Baseball Career Night, Decker was trying to speak with as many alumni as possible. Later in the evening, teammate Noah Hajdu, who had previously interned with Davila, encouraged Decker to introduce himself.

So he did.

"I was trying to talk to as many people as possible whose careers I might potentially be interested in," Decker said. "Noah told me he had this great experience with Brian in commercial real estate investment sales and that it would be worthwhile to go talk to him."

Decker walked over, introduced himself and started asking questions.

Davila explained the investment sales side of commercial real estate and how his work combines financial analysis with the relationship-driven nature of sales.

For Decker, the combination immediately resonated.

"I liked the fact that it's a relationship-driven job, but it also requires financial analysis," Decker said. "It really combined the two facets that I'm interested in."

Before the conversation ended, Davila offered to help Decker learn more.

He could come into the office the following summer and shadow him. If Decker wanted something more substantial, they could potentially build an internship around his baseball schedule.

The door was open.

Decker still had to walk through it.
 

The Importance of Being "Professionally Persistent"

One of the qualities that stood out most to Davila wasn't Decker's knowledge of commercial real estate. At that point, Decker was still learning what the industry was.

It was his follow-through.

After Career Night, Decker stayed in contact with Davila. They spoke again several weeks later. Davila told him there wasn't much that needed to happen immediately and suggested reconnecting in April or May.

Months later, right when Davila had suggested, Decker followed up.

"He followed up exactly when I told him to follow up," Davila said. "He was extremely proactive. If there was somebody else he should speak with, he wanted to know. He wanted to know what he should be doing and what the next step was."

That persistence eventually resulted in an internship that allowed Decker to commute into New York City two days each week from June through early August.

Importantly, it also allowed him to continue developing as a Division I baseball player.

Decker was able to live at home, play in a local summer league, train for the upcoming Lafayette season and simultaneously gain meaningful professional experience.

For Davila, that flexibility is part of what makes opportunities like these valuable for current players. Lafayette student-athletes already balance demanding academic and athletic schedules. Professional development doesn't necessarily need to compete with those commitments.

It can complement them.

For Decker, the experience also reinforced something baseball had already taught him: persistence doesn't guarantee success every time, but success is nearly impossible without it.

"Baseball is a numbers game, and you're going to fail way more than you succeed," Decker said. "You might strike out two out of your three at-bats, but if you go one-for-three, you're hitting .333."

Decker calls the approach being "professionally persistent."

Continue the outreach. Ask questions. Show genuine curiosity. Follow up appropriately. And don't allow one unanswered email, one unsuccessful conversation or one closed door to stop you from approaching the next one.

It's a lesson that applies equally well to baseball, commercial real estate and almost any career.

From the Textbook to the Real World

Once Decker arrived at Davila's office, his objective was straightforward.

"I was really just trying to be a sponge," Decker said. "I wanted to gain as much knowledge and information about the market as I could."

The internship allowed him to take concepts he was learning academically and see how they operate in a real-world environment.

He gained exposure to how commercial properties are valued through measures including net operating income, capitalization rates, comparable sales and rent rolls.

He learned how market participants evaluate supply and demand, rents, vacancies, transaction volume and capital flows to identify potential opportunities.

And he was able to see how a transaction actually progresses, from an initial valuation and marketing process through buyer outreach and ultimately toward a closing.

For a student interested in finance, it provided something a classroom alone cannot completely replicate, which is real life application.

Davila also saw a young player willing to put additional work on his plate.

Decker wasn't giving up baseball for an internship. He wasn't abandoning his training or summer competition. He was finding a way to do both.

"He was willing to add another task to his plate and get that experience," Davila said.

And when the internship ended, Decker didn't stop learning.

He enrolled in an additional financial-modeling course recommended by another Lafayette alumnus, studying areas including investment analysis, debt modeling and the role of capital markets in financing commercial real estate acquisitions.

His curiosity has expanded from investment sales into the capital markets side of the industry, where he has become increasingly interested in understanding how interest rates, leverage and debt structures influence acquisitions.

The internship did not give Decker all the answers about his future.

It did something arguably more valuable.

It helped him start asking better questions.

One Connection Becomes a Network

Perhaps the most significant thing Decker took from his experience with Davila was understanding how accessible the Lafayette network can be when a student is willing to use it.

He began researching commercial real estate firms and looking for Lafayette graduates.

His strategy wasn't complicated. He would visit a firm's LinkedIn page, search for Lafayette alumni and reach out.

What happened surprised him.

"Lafayette is such a small school, and I was pleased to find that there are so many Lafayette alumni who work in commercial real estate," Decker said. "Everyone was so willing to give me the time of day, hop on a phone call and answer questions."

Within the Lafayette Baseball family, those conversations have included former Leopards Jared Ross, Justin Shepherd and Nick Murray, in addition to Davila.

Ross, who works at CBRE, responded to Decker's initial outreach and eventually spoke with him about his career and the industry.

Shepherd, who works with Newmark in California, has spoken with Decker several times and helped introduce him to additional professionals within his organization.

This fall, Decker plans to spend a day shadowing Murray at CBRE in Philadelphia, creating another opportunity to see the business firsthand.

One conversation at Career Night had become an internship.

That internship became an interest.

That interest led to additional education.

And those experiences gave Decker the confidence to activate an entire network.

"That was probably the biggest thing I learned through the outreach process," Decker said. "Just how strong the alumni network is at Lafayette and through the baseball program."

Advice to His Freshman Self

Decker's perspective on Career Night has changed considerably since he first arrived at Lafayette.

As a freshman, he admits he was intimidated.

He wasn't sure what to say. He questioned whether he was qualified to approach successful alumni. He worried about sounding inexperienced.

So, he largely stayed on the sidelines.

"My first year at networking night, I barely talked to anyone," Decker said. "I was nervous because I was worried I wouldn't know enough about what they did to have a meaningful conversation".

Two years later, his advice to younger teammates is considerably different.

Start the conversation.

"I think getting your foot in the door is the hardest part," Decker said. "But once you do and once you start that outreach, a lot of great things can come from it."

It is a message that gets to the heart of why Lafayette Baseball Career Night exists.

The Friends can create the room.

Alumni can show up.

The program can provide access.

But ultimately, a current Leopard still has to walk across that room, introduce himself and start a conversation.

Living the Mission

The story of Jonathan Decker and Brian Davila isn't ultimately about commercial real estate.

It is about what the Friends of Lafayette Baseball hope to create for every current Leopard.

Resources. Mentorship. Opportunity.

It is about providing experiences that complement what players receive in the classroom and on the baseball field and helping them begin thinking about who they want to become after Lafayette.

Davila once relied on networking and a Lafayette relationship when he wanted to change the direction of his own career.

Today, more than a decade after wearing a Lafayette uniform, he's opening doors for the players coming behind him.

Decker took advantage of one of those opportunities.

Now he's building his own network, educating himself, developing relationships and preparing for whatever comes next.

And someday, perhaps five, 10 or 20 years from now, another Lafayette Baseball player may walk into Career Night unsure of what he wants to do.

He may see Decker standing across the room.

He may introduce himself.

He may ask for advice.

And Decker will have the opportunity to do for that young Leopard what Davila did for him.

Pay it forward.

That is the vision behind Lafayette Baseball Career Night and the broader mission of the Friends of Lafayette Baseball.

Wins, championships and individual accomplishments will always be part of how a baseball program measures success. But Lafayette Baseball is also about preparing young men for what comes next and creating relationships that endure long after their final game on College Hill.

A conversation becomes a relationship.

A relationship becomes an opportunity.

And one generation of Leopards helps prepare the next.

That is Lafayette Baseball Beyond the Diamond.

For the latest on the Lafayette College baseball program, follow the Leopards on Instagram @lafayettebsbl and X @LafayetteBsbl
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