Ross Couch
The Union-Recorder
April 18, 2008 11:23 pm
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Only five out of the 17 plays in the Georgia College & State University tennis program are from the United States. The others are from all over the world.
From Brazil to Ecuador to France, the GCSU tennis teams have become mostly international in make-up.
Head coach Steve Barsby said the worldwide recruiting trend stems from a certain mindset of players native to the U.S.A.
“A lot of American players have a Division 1 mindset,” Barsby said. “We look at a lot of players from Georgia, but if they are good enough to really play in our lineup and help on a national level, they probably are good enough to play at a solid D-1 school. Most of those players go that route.”
And that leads to a search for players elsewhere. Barsby said it has become increasingly easier to bring talented, foreign players into the program.
“Most of these players find it mind-boggling that someone will pay for their university education and all they have to do is play tennis and go to school,” Barsby said. “That doesn’t happen anywhere else in the world. For the players it’s a great deal, and for us, we get great players and great kids.”
On the GCSU girls’ squad, two out of the three seniors are foreign. Celine Martin is a 5-foot-4-inch player from Amberieux-En-Dombes, France, and Sofia Intriago is a 5-foot-1-inch player from Guayaquil, Ecuador. Whitney Lightfoot is the other senior, a 5-foot-4-inch player for Tifton.
On the men’s side, Matthew Belenchia (Lilburn) and Tony Bertucci (Martinez) are the only seniors, and both are from Georgia. The rest of the team, save Freshman Kyle Uhles (Cumming), are foreign players.
Barsby said the foreign trend is not new.
“When I first got here we only had two players on both teams combined from the U.S.A,” he said. “The rest were from Canada, Norway or Sweden. We had a lot of talent, and it was a nice situation to walk in to.”
The way the recruiting works has changed, however.
“It used to be that you went back and forth with coaches across the world, and you watched a lot of VHS tapes,” Barsby said. “Now, there are recruiting services in almost every country. People ask me if I got to all those countries. I wish. Almost everything is through e-mail, over the telephone and on the Internet.”
And once the kids arrive at GCSU, success usually follows.
“We are really proud of all the kids who have come through here,” Barsby said. “For example, Erick Siqueira may go down as the best player ever here. We’ve had All-Americans and some really good kids. You can just tell they are happy for the opportunity. They really enjoy it.”
The toughest part of the recruiting process is the players’ transition to a new country.
“It’s hard sometimes to help these kids feel at home,” Barsby said. “We try to bring several players from the same area in to make it a little easier, but it’s still tough. One of the biggest crimes I see is that most of these kids’ parents will never see them play. The kids seem to do well though.”
And Barsby doesn’t see that changing. He things players from around the world are here to stay.
“I think tennis is a very international sport,” he said. “The kids will keep coming. I don’t see it changing any time soon.”
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