Denim Millward
Sports Editor
If you were to purchase a globe and place a red dot to mark the hometown of every Idaho State University student athlete, your globe would end up looking like it came down with a bad case of the measles.
From tennis to track and softball to basketball, Bengals from around the world do a superb job at both representing the university as well as contributing to the rich cultural diversity of Idaho State, a feature that’s also reflected in the general student body.
Freshman soccer player Maria Sanchez, who not long ago was racking up goals for American Falls High School at an absurd rate (she netted 68 goals in just 17 games her senior year), was named a member of the Mexican National U-20 team March 6.
Abigail Ashbee-Simmonds, a distance runner for the track and field team, hails from West Sussex, England.
The women’s basketball team went to our neighbors to the north to recruit junior forward Anna-Lee Policicchio, a Sault Ste. Marie, Canada native, and across the world to bring in Freya Newton, a junior guard from Palmerston North, New Zealand.
Aussie pitcher Jessica Tolmie made her way to ISU from Newcastle, Australia via a stint in Philadelphia at Temple University.
And the men’s basketball team? Forget it.
The roster of the men’s team looks more likely to have come from the minutes of a United Nations meeting than a college basketball roster.
Players who originally hail from five different continents are represented.
Ajak Magot, whose hometown is listed as Tucson, Arizona, was born in the country now known as South Sudan while Ben Wilson comes from Bardon, Queensland, Australia.
Geno Luzcando graduated from Wasatch Academy High School in Utah, but calls Estacion Central, Chile his home.
Novak Topalovic similarly immigrated to the United States and graduated from high school here, but is a native of Nis, Serbia.
Andrej Slavik was born in Ziar n Hronov, Slovakia, but later came to the U.S. and graduated from Beacon Prep.
So what does this diversity among Idaho State athletes say about university athletics and Idaho State in general? A lot of things, actually.
First, it speaks to the diligence of each sport’s coaching staff in recruiting athletes as well as to the lengths they will go to plumb the entire globe in an effort to find the right athlete.
Second, it’s a microcosm of the cultural diversity that can be seen on any given day simply by taking a leisurely stroll around campus.
Personally, the huge variety of people I’ve met in my time at ISU and the multitude of different life experiences they’ve had are two of the things I like most about being a Bengal.
One on-field benefit, especially in basketball, is the diversity of styles of play, depending on the country in which a given player learned their trade, as those styles can provide a more comprehensive arsenal of weapons.
However, the off-the-field aspect of athletes coming together from vastly different walks of life and considering each other a brother or sister at the end of their respective careers is significantly more important, not to mention fascinating, to an outside observer such as myself.
