Each year, coaches at the University of North Carolina Wilmington recruit athletes from around the world to play on the school’s 18 men’s and women’s varsity sports teams. This year’s rosters include athletes from Belgium, Canada, Colombia, Finland, Germany, Honduras, Nigeria, Romania, South Africa and Sweden.
Andres Torres is excited about his second season playing tennis for UNCW. The Colombia native said adjustment to life in the United States was not difficult thanks to the traveling he did during high school as his country’s highest International Tennis Federation-ranked junior player. Torres competed in the Junior U.S. Open Tennis Championships in 2013.
“For me, the adjustment was not hard. I’m used to traveling and being away from home,” he said.
Torres said the highlight of last year’s season was winning a match against Drake University, an Iowa school ranked 41st in the nation for Division I men’s tennis.
A sophomore majoring in entrepreneurship and business development, Torres said his ultimate goal is to play professional tennis.
“I want to play pro first for a few years, and from there I’ll make decisions,” he said.
Moa Jarl, who discovered her passion for soccer at age 5, also sees a potential career path in professional athletics.
“I’d like to play after I graduate, if possible,” she said.
Jarl, originally from Gothenburg, Sweden, looked into UNCW after a teammate on her high school soccer club enrolled at the university.
While most high schools in Sweden do not have sports, Jarl attended an athletic school that prepared students to play at foreign universities or become professional athletes.
“We didn’t compete, but we practiced at 7:30 every morning,” she said.
Jarl said the biggest difference from playing in Sweden and playing for UNCW is the amount of tactical preparation.
“Here, we watch videos before games. I had never done that before,” she said.
Jarl also said she appreciates having an athletic trainer at UNCW, a resource her school in Sweden lacked.
“When my parents came to visit, they were amazed by how organized the program is,” she said.
A junior who plays center midfield, Jarl said her greatest accomplishment for UNCW was scoring a goal her freshman year.
“When I scored, it caught everyone off guard,” she said.
However, Jarl said she would rather focus on team achievements than individual accomplishments.
“I want us to win a tournament,” she said.
Although Jarl now speaks English fluently, her greatest difficulty when she first arrived at UNCW was the language barrier.
“I had to have Google translator with me all the time,” she said. “After being here two years, I don’t see any problems with English now.”
Alexander Schlobohm, a soccer player from Bremen, Germany, also said English was a challenge shortly after arriving at UNCW in August 2014.
“In the first month, it took me longer to understand lectures,” he said.
Schlobohm, a senior studying international business, had never left Europe before deciding to attend UNCW for two years through an exchange program with the University of Bremen.
His greatest challenge was adjusting to the summer heat.
“I’ve never had that kind of weather before,” he said. “Back home, it rains a lot and it’s colder.”
He is currently injured, but hopes to recover in time to play in a few games before the end of his final collegiate season. Schlobohm also hopes to see his team return to the NCAA tournament after advancing to the second round last season.
“I think we’re good enough to make it,” he said.
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