The latest member of the Newburyport High coaching tree

A Newburyport native and Newburyport High alumnus of 1983, Jed Petty and his family — wife Lauren, son Evan, 16, and daughters Jane, 14, and Leah, 11 — are currently embarking on a trip and experience of a lifetime. A graduate of Bucknell University, Jed Petty had been working at a Boston-based investment management company since 1996, when his work gave him an offer to relocate to Singapore and work there for three to five years. After discussing everything with his family, the Pettys were off, and Jed and his family were soon expatriates.

But Jed and his family, New Englanders through and through, never left their home behind, and Jed became the baseball coach for the school his children attend — the Singapore American School.

The Daily News sports desk had the pleasure to talk with Jed about his family, the team and the way of life Singapore presents.

What is Singapore like? The culture? The people?

"Singapore is a small¬ independent country known as a city-state. It is on an island at the¬ southern tip of the Malaysian Peninsula. Many people think it is in China, but it is located in Southeast Asia between Malaysia and Indonesia.

"Singapore is quite multicultural. The Singaporeans tend to be of Chinese descent (67 percent), Malay descent (15 percent) or Indian descent (10 percent). There are also a large number of expatriates from places such as America, Canada, Australia, UK/Europe, and Korea.

"It is an amazingly clean, efficient city. It is quite 'managed' by what many think of as a somewhat authoritarian government. The people are very tolerant of all ethnic backgrounds and it is extremely safe. Singapore became an independent city-state in 1965 and has created a first-world city from its third-world roots. It is now an important financial center in Southeast Asia along with having many other industries such as information technology, oil and gas, and health care."

How long have you been in Singapore, and how long do you plan to stay?

"We arrived in the summer of 2007, and we expect to be here a total of three to five years."

Is there a language barrier, and how do you get by it?

"Singapore made a very intelligent decision many years ago to make English the official language for business and also in the schools. So while you hear Mandarin and Malay and other languages quite often, just about everyone can speak English. Thus language is not an issue.

So what is the sports scene like? And how is baseball received?

"The 'locals', being mostly of Chinese descent, favor some traditional Chinese sports such as badminton. The country was once part of the British Empire so soccer and cricket are also popular. It is very hot and humid here, however, so that can be a challenge. Singapore just won its first Olympic medal in many years (silver in women's team table tennis). The people were very excited; however, there have been some critics because the team was made up of very recent Chinese immigrants. Singapore has made an effort to attract foreign sports talent to build up their international sports teams — not unlike many countries.

"Baseball is played mostly by the North American expatriates (U.S./Canada) and also by Japanese and Korean ex-pats."

Where do you coach? How is it offered? And where does the team play?

"Most of the American ex-pat children go to the Singapore American School. The school has a number of sports available, but does not offer baseball directly. Baseball is offered through an organization called the Singapore American Community Action Council. SACAC has a close relationship with SAS and the baseball fields are located on the SAS campus. SACAC offers baseball to all the youth right up through high school.

What season do the kids play? How many teams are there? And how are they comprised?

"The programs offered include a preseason training on Sundays in the fall. Last year Evan participated in this and I helped out. The 'regular' season is in the winter and, depending on how many kids sign up, we make as many teams as possible.

"Last year at the high school level, we had four teams. I coached the team that Evan was on. We play about 20 games — all against each other.

"With all four high school grades competing together, each team has a pretty wide variety of players. Obviously,¬ each team has freshmen who are less experienced and each team has upperclassmen, many of whom are quite skilled. Think of it as if Newburyport and Amesbury put all their high school players (9-12) in one pool and then tried to make four to six teams that were pretty equal in talent. Each team would have a few players that were legitimate varsity baseball players and others who were not quite ready for that level yet."

Are there any other leagues or tournaments?

"Each year, there is also one team put together that plays in an international tournament. This year, there is a team playing this fall, and Evan is on it. They will play in the Singapore men's league, which I do not know too much about, but I believe includes three to four teams made up of men who live here. I know¬ one of the teams is Japanese.

"In October, Evan's team will travel to Beijing to play in a China Cup. There will be four varsity teams — Singapore, The International School of Beijing, Shanghai American School and Hong Kong International School. I am not¬ coaching this team. I expect to coach a team this winter when the SACAC league starts again. It is also likely that another tournament team will be formed and play this winter in a tournament somewhere in Asia."

Overall, what is it like being an expatriate family?

"Being an ex-pat family is challenging. There have been many good times — making new friends, traveling to many places (Bali, Cambodia, India, Spain and Tokyo to see the Red Sox play their openers) — and many not-so-good times. We miss our friends and families and look forward to our visits home to Newburyport. In the scheme of a full life, however, I think all of us will look back on these few years and be glad we had this experience."

Newburyport High School

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