There’s a complexity about settling into essentially a new world, as many college students would concur. Adapting can serve as a maturation process, and for college athletes, the process extends stemming from their extracurricular work on the field.
For some athletes, however, it’s not merely a drive straight down the interstate or a direct flight into Richmond. International athletes walk into the unknown after countless hours of traveling and attempt to familiarize themselves with their new surroundings.
Longwood boasts 40 total foreign athletes in the 2018-19 academic year, deriving from 25 different countries. There are 23 of student athletes from Europe – making up 57.5 percent – with the next highest amount being five from Africa. The majority of the athletes are male; 23 of them to be exact. However, more than three-fourths of them are members of the men’s soccer and men’s tennis programs. On the women’s side, 11 of the 17 athletes are on the field hockey and women’s tennis teams.
Touching down in a different country can be a stomach-churning moment, igniting the fear of the unknown. With students coming from as far as Japan and as close as just north of the border in Canada, travel represents only the first of numerous challenges.
Challenges in which senior Leonie Verstraete of the Longwood field hockey team endeavored just four years ago when she left her family in Utrecht, the Netherlands; just a short 3,989-mile adventure to her second home in Farmville.
“When I came here, I didn’t know my role and I didn’t know my place; and I always knew people,” Verstraete said. “I think my freshman year I struggled with playing, and you could tell by the way I played, like I didn’t play my full potential.”
She never considered going to school in America until field hockey head coach Iain Byers reached out after seeing her highlight tape. Further recruitment, Skyping and constant communication between the two eventually led her overseas.
“I didn’t put that much thought into it to be honest, it was kind of spontaneous,” Verstraete said. “My initial plan was to go for a year, but then I liked it so I wanted to stay here to finish my education.”
Being one of six international players on the field hockey team, Verstraete came to America not knowing much English and struggled with acclimating to the culture change. A struggle in which junior Amadeo Blasco encountered three years ago when he was recruited to play for the men’s tennis program.
“It’s a different culture, everything is different,” Blasco said. “I’m still learning.”
Blasco is one of three players under head coach Jhonnatan Medina-Alvarez who was recruited out of Spain. In the past two years, he was joined by sophomore Marc Casasnovas from Barcelona and freshman Guillermo Cagigas from Madrid.
Contrary to Verstraete, Blasco always had intentions of playing tennis in America. Where he lives in Valencia, he said it is extremely difficult to compete at a high level while receiving an education at the same time. Additionally, he’s an only child, which had a great impact on his parents seeing him leave.
“I think they were kind of sad I left them that early because I left home when I was seventeen.” Blasco said. “But they were excited for me because they knew how much I wanted to come here to America to study and play tennis.”
Senior Sherif Maalouf of the Longwood men’s soccer team already had a sniff at the American lifestyle his freshman year when he committed to play soccer at Northern Illinois. His first impression wasn’t exactly what he pictured, so he re-opened his recruitment to be found by Longwood head coach Jon Atkinson.
Maalouf is one of 11 international athletes on the men’s soccer team, four more players than the next highest of men’s tennis, in which all seven players on their roster are international.
Part of a family who likes to travel, it was still tough for Maalouf to leave his domain in Cairo, Egypt – the only athlete at Longwood from Egypt – when he first came to America.
“In the beginning it was a bit difficult,” he said. “I’m a family guy so just not being around the family was difficult.”
One of the most taxing aspects of being an international student, Maalouf noted, was not being able to go home whenever they want. In his situation, depending on the layover, a simple trip back home twice a year may reach 20 hours. Although the trip is difficult for those who come from overseas, they have all familiarized themselves with the constant obstacles of travel.
Not only is it tough to adapt as an international student-athlete, according to Maalouf, but transitioning to a different style of education and cultural traditions was something he, as well as Verstraete and Blasco, struggled in conforming to when they first moved to America.
Interestingly enough, though, they said they never win when leaving both home and school on breaks. When they go back home on the two breaks most of them have – winter and summer – they’re leaving behind a second family.
“When they get really close to their teammates and other people, for us, it’s really hard to leave here. We have, like, a new life,” Blasco said.
With winter and summer breaks being the only times when international athletes are able to fly home, this leaves them with the decision of whether or not to stay with a friend or teammate over fall, Thanksgiving and spring breaks.
Verstraete, who graduates in 2019, says not being able to drive home every so often has become one of the more difficult parts of living overseas. However, her teammates and friendships made the transition to an unfamiliar culture easier, and dreads the day she waves goodbye to her second family.
“I thought at first I was going to get more homesick, but I think I was surprised that I wasn’t,” Verstraete said. “When I’m home, I’m homesick to here. Also when I’m here it’s the same thing. It goes both ways.”
Although they miss their family and friends in their respective countries, leaving the friends they’ve made over the years will be equally as difficult. They’ve created a new life overseas, missing memories they could be making at home, but making them thousands of miles away. This, in turn, presents them with a new challenge after they graduate.
Sherif Maalouf, native of Cairo, Egypt, left his family behind four years ago to follow his aspirations of studying and playing soccer in America.
