|
Post by Upfrontvb on Apr 24, 2014 17:09:02 GMT -5
USC water polo. For a while they had so many from the former Yugoslavia on their roster that the nickname was the "University of Southern Croatia". Currently it's 3 Australians. Nobody blinks twice when you walk into a university physics lab and 1/2 the students there have non-US passports. Why should a sports team be different? Well I do blink. Because there are CA kids trying to get into CA school who do not get accepted but a large number of international students do get in. Is it because they are paying more for out of country tuition and the school benefits from this? I think over the years, this has been noted by the CA media, due to the budget crisis (education) in CA. I think we have a lot of talent athletes who get overlooked for international athlete/students. Yes it does come down to winning and if you can get an athlete from another country who can do the job then you would be silly not to recruit them. (Yes I will admit, this is a rambling thought.)
|
|
|
Post by vbcoachsouth on Apr 25, 2014 10:50:49 GMT -5
proportion here depends on a number of factors...many american coaches believe there are loads of talent overseas - or in a particular country - this is not necessarily true...now, depending on how you define talent, if you look at it country to country, then the US contains by far - not even close - more athletic talent than any other country individually
if you have talent in another country, then you are immediately put into their national system and on one of their top club programs; thus, if you are a top athlete, or let's say above 6' and 10' with relatively good skill, in another country, everyone knows who you are in the volleyball community, and you are among a relatively small group, compared to the U.S...in the U.S., there could be 5 club teams in the 16s age-group in the Chicago area that each have 2-3 girls above 6' and 10' with good skill; conversely, in France, there are maybe 10 (likely less) 16 yr-olds in the entire country that are above 6' and 10' with good skill
now, of course, good skill can be subjective, as is talent...yes, if you grow in Brazil, Russia, Serbia, etc., as a talent in their system, you will practice every day, be around older high level players, and your skill will be much more refined than growing up in most systems in the U.S., so foreign players in this sense can be very attractive (including the many other reasons noted before me)
|
|
|
Post by goodtobeagator on Apr 25, 2014 16:47:19 GMT -5
Or that there's a proportional representation of players and talented players between the 5% and the 95%. Depending which source you look at, about 65% of the world consists of developed countries. So a big chunk of that 95% has organized youth sports. And only 1 country in the world funds collegiate levels of competition at an elite level. Mikes point is valid, however you want to critique the off the cuff math. Susie around the corner is competing against some girl from Europe, Asia, and South America. In sports, for a roster spot, classroom spot, job, etc. This can also be referred to as life.
|
|
|
Post by gogophers on Apr 25, 2014 17:48:18 GMT -5
USC water polo. For a while they had so many from the former Yugoslavia on their roster that the nickname was the "University of Southern Croatia". Currently it's 3 Australians. Nobody blinks twice when you walk into a university physics lab and 1/2 the students there have non-US passports. Why should a sports team be different? If by "nobody blinks," you mean no one is surprised, I agree. If by "nobody blinks," you mean no one views this as problematic, I can assure you that many blink. In any case, there are many reasons why a sports team should be different, such as: 1. the foreign physics student is likely to be paying full tuition; the sports athlete is likely to be on scholarship (funded by American taxpayers, in the case of public schools). Never mind whether full tuition covers all of the costs; at least, it comes a lot closer to doing so than zero tuition. 2. sports teams exist, or supposedly exist, as non-essential entertainment, something to build the college identity around. Many--me, for instance--find it much easier to identify with "my" school's athletes when they are local or at least kids who might have known of the school and grown up wanting to come there. 3. There is, supposedly, a benefit, all things considered, to the American people in having large numbers of STEM students come abroad in that many remain here, become citizens, join or found start-ups, and so on. That there is an equivalent benefit from using taxpayer funds to train and educate Crotian or Australian water polo players, various Europeans interested in joining the Baylor tennis team, and, yes, foreigners wishing to hone their serve-receive game while getting a degree on the taxpayer's dime, is far less clear. (OK, Baylor isn't a state school and if the regents and administrators wish to spend the schools' money on maintaining a tennis team for foreigners, so be it; but you get my drift). 4. I have no facts and figures, just an impression, but my impression is that foreign STEM students are more likely to stay and work in this country after graduating, given the country's need for STEM graduates and its predilection for filling those slots by educating foreigners, than are foreign students not majoring in the STEM subjects. Assuming that's true, and assuming, as I do, that the ranks of foreign athletes are filled for the most part with non-STEM majors, this country gets less of a return on foreign athletes than it does its foreign physics students.
|
|
|
Post by mikegarrison on Apr 25, 2014 20:48:27 GMT -5
Nobody blinks twice when you walk into a university physics lab and 1/2 the students there have non-US passports. Why should a sports team be different? If by "nobody blinks," you mean no one is surprised, I agree. That is the meaning of the phrase. (Granted, the more traditional way of saying it is "no one bats an eye.")
|
|
|
Post by ja on May 4, 2014 19:39:20 GMT -5
Is there a limit on number of foreign players allowed on a team? Not just volleyball - any sport? Seems like track and field was discussing it a few years ago. Lots of disparity in the JC ranks, or at least there used to be. Maybe it's evened out now. No limit What about DII? How would you describe this roster: ubknights.com/sports/wvball/2013-14/roster
|
|
|
Post by Mocha on May 4, 2014 20:16:49 GMT -5
Well, do you know who owns the school?
|
|
|
Post by Upfrontvb on May 4, 2014 23:12:35 GMT -5
I looked it up because I was curious. The Unification Church members hold administrative positions and is affiliate with the school.
|
|
|
Post by gh on May 5, 2014 8:28:44 GMT -5
Some of the CA schools do apparently have a quota for "foreign" prospects. Our daughter was offered a "pay the first year, get the next three years paid" opportunity at a CSU school because supposedly their foreign student scholarship quota was full. It wasn't 100% clear to us whether foreign was defined as outside of CA or outside of USA.
Of course this all could have just been a tactic of the coach, who really knows. My daughter went elsewhere, full ride.
|
|
|
Post by gh on May 5, 2014 8:30:17 GMT -5
We're from Canada, so at least the English thing isn't an issue
|
|
|
Post by FOBRA on May 5, 2014 11:16:40 GMT -5
Some of the CA schools do apparently have a quota for "foreign" prospects. Our daughter was offered a "pay the first year, get the next three years paid" opportunity at a CSU school because supposedly their foreign student scholarship quota was full. It wasn't 100% clear to us whether foreign was defined as outside of CA or outside of USA. Of course this all could have just been a tactic of the coach, who really knows. My daughter went elsewhere, full ride. Most public schools have different tuition rates for residents, out-of-staters and then internationals so I can see where a smaller athletic budget may have to cap the amount of scholarships that aren't in state.
|
|
|
Post by mikegarrison on May 5, 2014 14:15:45 GMT -5
We're from Canada, so at least the English thing isn't an issue ... until the spelling flamewars begin!
|
|
|
Post by livbfan on May 6, 2014 9:24:32 GMT -5
Well, do you know who owns the school? Wouldn't it have more to do with the coaching staff being foreign born and therefore well connected overseas? I've always found it funny as to how Bridgeport seems to end up with players who were one-and-done in D1. They seem to be the first to know who's interested in leaving. It's like they press their European connections and ask "so, who's miserable? "
|
|