UNC’s recent basketball roster proves this point: US college sports has become a pro league with a global supply of talent. Last season, we had Luka Bogovac of Montenegro, Henri Veesaar of Estonia, and while you may have missed him, Ivan Matlekovic of Croatia. This season, we already have two players from abroad on the roster, with more likely coming. Neoklis Avdalas and Maxim Logue hail respectively from Greece and France. Reporting indicates the staff hopes to replace our recently departed Estonian
center with one or even two currently hooping in Europe.
There’s nothing wrong with that, and the “let’s find players from abroad” thing goes way back. When I was in high school, the University of Alabama in Huntsville started a club hockey program. A bunch of the imported rocket scientists created a solid youth program and indoor ice rink in Huntsville. Many of those kids ended up at UAH and started a club program. An imported Nordic engineering student or two gave the club a leg up. Adding a few more created a club team that beat club squads from the University of Tennessee, Auburn, Georgia, and other SEC schools to the tune of 30-0. That’s not a typo. At about 15-0, every goal would result in a fight. 5,000 people paid to watch every home game, and that club team grew. ESPN came calling. It won D2 championships in 1996 and 1998, then jumped to D1 and made the NCAA tournament in 2007 and 2010. International talent fueled a D1 hockey program at a deep South satellite campus.
UNC basketball was signing foreign players even prior to that. Dean Smith’s first international signing was Randy Weil in 1975. When I was at UNC, Dean Smith added German Henrik Rodl to his roster, a reliable bench contributor for the 1993 title team. Women’s soccer imported Sarina Weigman, part of the 1989 and 1990 title teams, and Lucy Bronze, part of the 2009 title team. Alessia Russo, one of Europe’s most accomplished players right now, spent three season in Chapel Hill. Other well known international athletes include Rick Fox, Vikas Gowdy (four time Olympian in track and field), Dominic Demeritte (won a gold medal for Bahama at the 2004 World Indoor Championships), and a host of others.
The names above only scratch the surface. Who’s your favorite international Tar Heel and why? Recency bias is totally acceptable.
