Interesting BV Article

[Friar]

A very good article in the BV about international students on the men’s tennis team. That got me wondering how many international students attend the university and are on sports teams. This is not new. For years we have had international students in our sports programs. Having international students on campus helps with the bottom line and helps with cultural diversity.

www.thebvnewspaper.com/2024/09/27/mens-tennis-a-melting-point-of-foreign-talent/

[towniegrad]

I was surprised to see that the men’s soccer roster was nearly all international students; I don’t know the backstory on this,but I do know wny produces many quality soccer players although most are not intercollegiate quality .

[ceharv]

It is an interesting article but the BV is a little behind in reporting on this as “news.” My oldest, my daughter, graduated in 2002 (OMG, I had to check on this, but it’s correct. It really makes me feel old that my daughter has already had her twentieth year Bona class reunion!) Anyway, she was on the tennis team back then and after one of her years made plans to visit one of her teammates during the summer break. I thought that was kinda cute, then learned the teammate she wanted to visit was from Finland! I remember back then thinking when your kid wants to visit the home of a school friend in grade school, it usually requires a walk to a nearby neighborhood. In high school, the visit requires a car trip to someplace in the same township. In college, the trip requires getting your kid a passport. Anyway, while in Finland they visited one or more of the four players on the men’s team who were also from Finland. Mike Bates was also the tennis coach back then and was recruiting players from Finland to Bonas in a big way. The men’s team won the A10 championship back in ‘01 and ‘03.

[towniegrad]

The population of Finland is 5.5 million. That’s about 25% of the population of nys
Hard to believe they have more good tennis players than nys
Would be a scenic place to visit for a recruiting trip though.