Athletes far from home find a nest at UMW

by AMANDA SHEWARD

Senior Writer

Being away from home, especially at college, can be hard, but for international athletes who come to UMW to play a sport from another country, it is an entirely different story. These athletes move thousands of miles away from their homes to dedicate their time and energy to their sport and to becoming the best athletes they can be, not only for themselves but for their team too.  

Izzy Schefermann is a freshman from Dubai currently playing rugby for the UMW women’s team. In Dubai, she says, rugby is much more popular compared to the United States so although the low level of interest was not surprising, it was an adjustment. 

“At home rugby is an extremely popular sport, there is a lot of competition,” she said. “When I came here my friends did not really know what rugby was and it did not surprise me because I knew that rugby in the U.S. was a growing sport because my brother got recruited here to play.”  

Being a part of a growing sport in the U.S. means a lot for Schefermann. She not only was recruited to play for UMW, but she already knew about the school because her brother Sebastian Schefermann is a senior here, and he recently got recruited to play rugby professionally after he graduated.  

International students are not recruited to UMW just for rugby. Freddy Rogers, a senior marketing major from the United Kingdom, is the men’s soccer team’s starting goalkeeper. For Rogers, playing in the U.S. at UMW means learning different styles of gameplay and adjusting to a condensed season compared to those in the U.K. 

“It’s definitely different playing in a different country, different styles of play and the main change is the structure of the season, where I’m used to playing from August through to May, it’s a lot more compact here,” he said. 

Rogers decided to play soccer in the U.S. because it allowed him to play at the highest level that he could. For his first two years of college, Rogers played at North Carolina Wesleyan University, then transferred to UMW after being approached by Head Men’s Soccer Coach Jason Kilby. 

“For my first two years in the U.S., I played at another University, NC Wesleyan and I decided I wanted a different challenge that would push me to be a better player and when Coach Kilby contacted me about this opportunity, I knew it was the right environment for me,” he said. 

For some sports, like tennis, the grounds the game is played on differ between countries so the change may be more difficult for international student-athletes. For Linda Dimitroff, a senior internal business major from Schorndorf, Germany, learning to compete on the new surface was challenging.

“We play on a different surface at home, so it was a change for me to play on a hard court at the beginning,” she said. “Tennis is also a quieter sport, whereas at college it is louder and there is more of a focus on team spirit. Tennis is more of an individual sport, so I really enjoy being part of a team here.” 

Alexandra Covington, the head women’s tennis coach, reached out to Dimitroff to see if she would play at UMW after the university she was initially playing at closed because of financial issues. It was not the first time that the two crossed paths, they met back in 2020 at a showcase in Germany.  

Ihor Birioutchenski is a freshman business management major from Ukraine who is swimming on the UMW men’s swim team. He says that compared to Ukraine, competitions happen more frequently in the U.S.

“Our practices are also different, we swim more volume during practice and less speed,” he said. “The UMW men’s swim team feels like a family compared to home, where nobody cares about each other.” 

UMW’s international student-athletes often sacrifice time away from their families and home countries to play the sport that they love in the United States. While the competitive differences vary between nations, these athletes dedicate much of their time at UMW to bettering themselves and their teams.