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A Foreign Flavor

Coming here has taught me to be self-reliant and to do things on my own.

NC State golfer Darren Blair, from Johannesburg, South Africa

International Athletes

Among the international student-athletes who found a place to play at NC State are, left to right, distance runner Tibor Vegh '08 of Szekesfehervar, Hungary; junior tennis player Catherine Grotz of Seraing, Belgium; golfer Stephanie Derrey '08 of Paris, France; and sophomore tennis player Lenka Hojckova of Povazska Bystrica, Slovakia.

By Tim Peeler

Sophomore Markus Kuhn arrived in the U.S. in the summer of 2006 with a list of schools to visit and a DVD of his football highlights. He and his father scoured Virginia and North Carolina for any college – small or large – that might be interested in a 6-foot-4, 280-pound German defensive lineman who played American football, just not in America.

Kuhn, from Weinheim, Germany, is an anomaly among international student-athletes. He had to look for an American school willing to give him a college scholarship. Coaches trying to fill their rosters with world-class players usually court the foreign student-athletes who land at American universities.

According to the Chronicle of Higher Education, the proportion of foreign athletes at NCAA Division I schools has doubled since the beginning of the decade. So what's the draw? The sports-mad U.S. is one of the few countries where students can receive a free education for participating in varsity athletics.

Of NC State's 450 student-athletes, about two dozen each year are from outside the U.S. The university has found stellar international talent in recent years. PGA Tour golfer Tim Clark '98 came to NC State from Durban, South Africa, after professional golfer Nick Price, also from Durban, recommended the program to him.

Basketball point guard Engin Atsur '07 of Istanbul, Turkey, was recruited mostly through e-mail by Drake University head coach Mark Phelps, a Wolfpack assistant at the time. And Kuhn considered NC State his best offer after showing his DVD to schools such as Liberty University and the College of William & Mary. He stuck with the decision even though a trio of other ACC schools tried to lure him to their campuses.

But recruiting student-athletes from other countries can create headaches for a school's compliance director because of questions about amateur status and academic eligibility. In fact, monitoring the amateur status of foreign athletes became so difficult that the NCAA established a uniform certification process in 2007 for any student-athlete offered a scholarship at an NCAA school.

"It's always tough, because each student has unique issues," says Jon Fagg, associate athletics director for compliance. The NCAA's process has made determining amateur status more uniform, he says, but determining a student-athlete's academic eligibility remains difficult.

And for the student-athletes, there are cultural and language barriers, not to mention homesickness.

"It's not easy," admits Kuhn, who took a year off after finishing his secondary education and enrolled at NC State as a 21-year-old freshman. "I left everyone behind – my family, my friends, everyone. I am pretty much by myself. It's not like I had a horrible life in Germany and said, 'Oh my God, I have to get out of the country.' I just thought I had a chance to do this, and I wanted to try it. It was a big step for me, for sure, but I am having the best time of my life right now."

Cell phones, Web sites like Facebook and MySpace, and Web cameras help keep international students connected to home. But many foreign student-athletes have already traveled extensively for international tournaments and events just to get the attention of scouts and college recruiters. And some are simply used to being away, like former basketball player Ilian Evtimov '05, who left his Sofia, Bulgaria, home at age 14 to attend American high schools.

Senior golfer Darren Blair, from Johannesburg, South Africa, says, "Coming here has taught me to be self-reliant and to do things on my own. When things are good, they are really good. When they are bad, they can be really bad. So I have learned to deal with both ends of the spectrum."

Women's tennis players Daria Petrovic and Lenka Hojckova have thrived in a program with three international players on a seven-player roster. But Raleigh doesn't always compare to home.

"I miss snow during the winter," says Hojckova, a sophomore from Povazska Bystrica, Slovakia. "There is always snow on the ground at home."

"I am used to being where it is warm all the time," says Petrovic, a senior from Marbella, Spain. "It gets too cold for me here."

This article originally appeared in the NC State alumni magazine, a benefit of membership in the NC State Alumni Association.