Most Illinois students would love to take a three-week fall break and head to the Caribbean.

In early October, Illinois sophomore catcher Chris Robinson accepted an invitation to take a two-week trip to Cuba with a one-week training camp prior to representing his native country, Canada, in the International Baseball Federation's 2003 World Cup.

"It's an honor to get to play with some of those guys," Robinson said. "Some of the guys that have been through the major leagues and that. Just anytime you get to put your country on your shirt is a pretty big honor."

Robinson left Champaign Sunday, Oct. 5, to begin preparing for the World Cup with a week of training in Orlando, Fla. After the team spends time together training, they head to Havana, Cuba, for the World Cup, which spans from Sunday, Oct. 12, to the championship game Saturday, Oct. 25.

"This is kind of like the Olympics of baseball," Illinois baseball head coach Itch Jones said. "Before baseball was put into the Olympics (in 1988), this kind of served the purpose of what baseball would have been had it been in the Olympics."

Jones coached the United States team in the World Cup as an assistant in 1975 and as the head coach in 1977. After being around World Cup participants, Jones knows how much significance representing their country brings to the players.

"For Chris, it's just great exposure," Jones said. "Just the opportunity to represent your country will be something he will remember his entire life and especially at his age."

This is the second time that Robinson will be playing for Canada's national team during international competition. In July, Robinson played on the Canadian team that defeated Puerto Rico to qualify for the approaching World Cup.

At 19, Robinson was the youngest member of Canada's team and as one of three catchers, he didn't see much playing time. For the World Cup, Robinson will still be the youngest player on the roster, but he expects to play more with only one other catcher on the roster and Canada guaranteed to play seven games in eight days.

"That (the seven guaranteed games) is just round robin, then we've got some quarterfinals and semifinals," Robinson said. "One catcher can't do all that work. It will be good to split time with the other catcher. That's a lot of baseball so you can't have one catcher there all day, every single day or by the end of the week you'll be all tired out and probably a little bit sore too."

During Illinois' fall practices, Illinois senior catcher/first baseman Trevor Frederickson noticed with just the little amount of international experience from the summer, Robinson already showed development.

"I think Chris has had a great experience playing for Canada," Frederickson said. "I think it's a great opportunity for him to play with older players who have a lot of experience. I think it's really helped him out."

The World Cup begins with round robin competition to decide the best four teams in each pool. Teams in Canada's pool include Chinese Taipei, Cuba, Guam, Italy, Korea, Nicaragua and Russia.

The eight teams in the other pool are Brazil, China, France, Japan, Mexico, Netherlands, Panama and the United States.

Each team will play every other team in their pool and the top four teams in each pool advance to an eight-team playoff beginning Wednesday, Oct. 22. Canada begins round robin competition Monday against Nicaragua.

Canada has the potential to be successful during the World Cup and maybe Robinson will even bring a souvenir back to Champaign.

"I think Canada is considered pretty good at baseball and not somebody that you walk over," Robinson said. "We'd be probably considered a baseball power, one of the top eight in the world. I think we expect to move on. I think we expect to be playing for a medal too."

Despite Robinson's optimism, Canada's best finish at the World Cup came in 1974 when the team finished fourth. This year will be Canada's 14th appearance in the World Cup being held for the 35th time.

Several understanding Illinois faculty are allowing Robinson to focus solely on enjoying the experience of representing his country.

"All of my teachers have been really supportive and told me that it's an opportunity I can't give up," Robinson said. "Obviously, I have to stay on top of all the reading and any major things that I have to do, but all of them have been really supportive. It's been nice."

Getting away from studying for his Illinois classes, Robinson will begin to study the tendencies of Canada's pitchers that he will be working with during the next two weeks. Robinson expects the pitchers to determine Canada's success in the World Cup.

"We're a pretty good baseball nation," Robinson said. "We've got good players going, so it will probably all come down to pitching. I guess it's considered short, so in the short term it all comes down to pitching."