Former Jones County High School star Tyler Roberts is finding there is no such thing as an offseason in professional baseball.

After a few days at home last week to rest and visit with family and friends, he headed back to Glendale, Ariz., site of the Milwaukee Brewers’ spring training and rookie league complex, to begin several more weeks of workouts before heading to the Dominican Republic for some winter league baseball.

“I’m supposed to go to the Dominican just before Thanksgiving, and I’ll be there until I come home for Christmas,” Roberts said. “Then I’ll head back to Arizona in early January to start getting ready for spring training (which opens in February).

“It’s a lot of work, but I’m making progress and getting better. I really think it will pay off and put me ahead of the guys who went to play college ball. All we do is work on fundamentals, study videos of pitchers and batters and play games.”

Roberts was a 10th round draft pick by the Brewers in June following his outstanding high school career with the Greyhounds.

The young catcher first reported to the Brewers’ Arizona Rookie League camp, where he spent most of the summer learning the Brewers’ system and adjusting to the pro game.

He played in 21 games, batting .292 with one double, one triple, one home run, eight RBI, 13 walks and 19 strikeouts in 72 at-bats. He also stole two bases.

That earned him a late-season promotion to the Brewers’ Pioneer Rookie League team in Helena, Mont., where he went 1-for-8 with one RBI in three games.

“I’m hoping if I can do well down in the Dominican League and have a good spring training, I can either start next season in Helena or maybe even jump up to the Class A team in Wisconsin (the Midwest League Wisconsin Timber Rattlers in Appleton, Wis.). That would give me a jump moving up the ladder.”

Roberts said a typical day for him this summer was to get to the clubhouse about 11 or 11:30 in the morning for weightlifting or video work, eat lunch about 1, then spend the afternoon either hitting, fielding, running bases or catching bullpen sessions.

“Then you had a game every night at 7, so we didn’t finish up until 11 or 11:30 at night,” he said.

“Being a catcher, you are even busier than most of the other guys, because you have to work four or five bullpens every day so they can work all the pitchers in camp.”

Some nights Roberts would play in the games against other rookie league teams based in the area. But other nights he would play in intrasquad games against other Brewer players.

Roberts said he did battle some homesickness early on despite being so busy.

“I’d try to keep in touch with people back home by phone, but when we’d get through at night out there, it would be 2 or 3 in the morning back home. And when everyone else back in Gray got up in the morning, I’d still be asleep.”

But as the summer progressed, he made some friends on the team and felt more at ease.

“I got to be pretty good friends with Maverick Lasker, one of our pitchers who is from Phoenix,” Roberts said. “We would do some things together. And Chris Capuano, one of the pitchers down from the triple-A team rehabbing an injury, spent a lot of time with me on breaking down video and looking for what the pitchers need so I can call better games.”

While he was home last week, Roberts caught up on sleep, visited with friends, went to the fair and just enjoyed being at home.

“I’m having fun and learning a lot, but it was good to be back and see everyone.”