John Calipari
There are two links below. One is to an interview with Coach Calipari, the second is second is with David Benjamin of the ITA (Intercollegiate Tennis Association.) Both have segments with comments on international athletes in American college sports. To access those comments scroll to minute 8:38 with Coach Calipari and beginning at minute 53 to minute 60 ). David Benjamin gives an accurate and fair summary of this conundrum.
Coach Calipari :
Coach Benjamin:
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Once I questioned my own persistence to a respected professional. His adamant response was “… worth the effort? You’re damn right it is worth it. It’s our children. Child advocacy !”
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I have fought this imbalance since 1970. Look the recent blog articles and the books I have written. But I’m about “out of gas”. I am firing me last bullets. And I write this hoping some younger tennis enthusiasts will jump in the fray.
: https://littlegreenbookoftennis.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/helping-by-tom-parham.pdf
The second half of HELPING deals with this issue. TP
Here are random comments from HELPING ( and elsewhere ) :
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August 5th, 1999 From TENNIS WORLD by Beth German:
“The NCAA is also to be blamed for not keeping tennis specific numbers. It is impossible to find out how many international players take roster spots, scholarships or Graduate from college.”
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REDSHIRT (Definition of an athlete staying out of college competition for a year to develop one’s skills and extend one’s period of playing eligibility: He redshirted last season.
Most humans max out physically at about age 27 or 28, College freshmen start college at 17 or 18.
Aspiring professional tennis players have long been advised to not go to college.
A new scenario has emerged!
Very few make the top 200, who about break even, The conditions are often horrible, lonely and disappointing. One fine college player after trying the pro circuit said ” I got tired of eating mayonnaise sandwiches. You need about 3/4 years to develop physically”.
The galloping allure of American College Tennis is attracting more and more, better and better potential pro players, who are betting on a different developmental arena.
College tennis is becoming the minor leagues of International tennis. 2024 was ample proof that that day is already here. And why not? Annual expenses? That is up to you. Great facilities and coaching, schedules featuring high quality match play. Fine practice partners (a team full ), not to mention a free college education. That most often is worth more than tennis.
And don’t forget- Pro tennis expenses come after years of very similar amounts of annual costs to be in the hunt.
The KICKER–The portal and likeness monies will make very lucrative possibilities for the best borderline international players. True too of the very top Americans. But only a few. Already the first year rumor mill is adrift with wildly questionable numbers and propositions being floated.
THE BAD NEWS IS A LOT OF FINE AMERICAN ASPIRANTS WILL BE IGNORED, And the same is probably true of many “global ” sports. Basketball, golf, soccer, volleyball, track and field are right behind. Tennis just got there first. See NEXT PLEASE (https://wordpress.com/post/littlegreenbookoftennis.com/6105 ).
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Currently college coaches go after the best players . Pretty simple. Earlier the players came from the student body. Then they recruited areas, then statewide, regionally, nationally, and internationally. Now we are attracting elite players world wide. Is Mars next?
We have created a pathway only possible for the very best and richest, What about the majority of our kids?
From Wayne Bryan (Father to Bob and Mike )
One foreign player per team?— fine —helps international good will and is a nice broadening experience for the guys on the team — six foreign players?! — I say the emperor has no clothes. I say burn it down and start over again. Time for a revolt. Carthage must be destroyed! I have been spectacularly unsuccessful in getting this elephant in our American living room removed. I have made speech after speech to coaches and parents in this country and they are 100% behind me and I’ve spoken to the college coaches national meeting in Florida on three occasions in recent years and I’ve hit this topic as hard as only Wayne Bryan can — to no avail.
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Want the best rationale for scholarships from the #1 sport world wide-soccer? Fact: Our men have never won the World Cup. With the advent of Title IX in 1970 our USA women have won three times! The 23 woman roster this time featured all women with college play and college scholarships. I was asked where the Olympic training camp for women was by a colleague from Elon University. Reply: Thirty five miles east. (Six of the twenty three had played for Anson Dorrance’s UNC Tar Heels.) 7. Change comes fast. In 2015 Duke’s women’s golf team finished 2nd in the NCAA. It was on NATIONAL TV. The BLUE DEVILS roster housed no American women. Coaches depend on winning to keep their jobs. I’ll guarantee young women golf coaches made note of Duke’s roster. (And how many good young Asian players are coming along). While this may be new to some it is not to many, myself included. In 1970 the NAIA voted down a “one only international can play in the NAIA Nationals” rule. A grizzled old coach stood and predicted, “… if you allow this, in about two years a Texas team will bring in an all Mexican team and it’s all over!” He was wrong. The next spring Mercyhurst College (PA.) produced the team winner consisting of six “freshmen” from Finland.
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Isn’t it about time some of our organizations screw up their courage and use their time, money and efforts to make these facts available to American parents and players.
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What legal statute keeps us from taking care of Americans first. What does the legal term “state actor” mean to this issue.
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What is not included in the column is the enormity of American college tennis scholarship aid given to international players.
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YOU KNOW BETTER THAN I WHAT IT COSTS AN AMERICAN TO COMPETE AT THE ELITE LEVEL. THERE ARE ONLY TWO MAJOR WAYS TO RECOUP PARENTAL/FAMILY INVESTMENT: 1. PRO TENNIS (IN NC ONLY ISNER, WILKISON, AND SADRI MADE ANY LIFETIME $) AND 2. COLLEGE SCHOLARSHIPS. THE RISING COST OF HIGHER EDUCATION MAKES SCHOLARSHIPS MORE VALUABLE AND MORE APT TO AFFECT THE CHOICE OF SCHOOL AND SPORT TO PURSUE.
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2016JUNE 25, 2016 by ETHOMASPARHAM
“International players ruled the ( NBA ) draft There were 14 international players selected in the first round of the 2016 Draft,
14 BUMPED AMERICANS. HOW MANY KIDS ARE BOUNCING THE BALL WHO WILL RUN INTO THIS EVENTUALLY.
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There are a growing number of coaches who may not disagree with financial need aid only. What if we gave financial aid to our poor tennis players? Isn’t it intended for our needy? I’d rather have financial help for our needy kids than foreign aid given in the name of diversity. You can be guaranteed that if the scholarship money disappears, so will many international tennis players.
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I wonder how many Athletic Directors silently came to a conclusion similar to this? 1. All sports are counted in the standings for our ‘Conference Cup’? 2. We are in a conference with four good tennis teams with all foreign teams and we give 8 girls and 41/2 boys grants to internationals. 3. I can find a better place for that size of budget.
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by Richard Hoffer
You might not notice it in the so-called revenue sports, football and basketball, which are the games that U.S. athletes are most keenly interested in (although 35 foreign basketball players dotted the rosters of teams in the men’s NCAA tournament this year), but in sports like golf, soccer, swimming. tennis and track and field, the college scene is decidedlv international. For instance: In last week’s NCAA tennis championships 33 of the 64 players in the men’s singles draw were foreign. An American, Mark Merklein from the University of Florida, was the winner, but the other three semifinalists all came from overseas. • The winning team at last week’s NCAA women’s golf tournament, Arizona State, included on its roster the top junior players from France, Mexico and Sweden. • Sixteen of the 31 swimmers on this year’s Arizona State men’s team were foreign, as were 12 of the 25 male swimmers at Nebraska. • The University of New Mexico’s men’s and women’s ski teams, which together had 22 members, were dominated by 19 athletes from other countries. •When Track & Field News previewed the NCAA track championships, which begin this week in Boise, Idaho, of the 168 men it predicted would score points, 54 were foreign-born, as were 43 of the 152 women. It’s not just the big schools that are searching for talent abroad. For one example, of the 17 tennis players on the men’s and women’s rosters at Northeastern Louisiana this season, only two listed a hometown in the U.S. (They were Nhut and Anh Diep, of Houston.) Likewise, Barber-Scotia College, a historically black school of 400 students in Concord, N.C., had an all-Nigerian tennis team that was ranked nationally in the NAIA. All this importation of talent is done by certain schools to stay competitive. Ask why NCAA track and field qualifying standards are nearly as high as those of the Olympics, and Alabama track coach Doug Williamson will tell you, “It’s these young people [read: foreigners] who have elevated the level of competition.”
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Pick a school, google men’s tennis . Tag the roster and see for yourself. Just recently I researched the total rosters of Division 11’s top six men’s teams. Of 63 players on the combined rosters, 62 were international.
Kudzu–it spread like kudzu from 1970 t0 1980. All levels, men then women, small to largest.
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Is this right? I wondered. Soon it moved to other world wide sports. Everyone in our area is a basketball expert. I wrote of all sports to:
Mr. Rudy Washington, Editor-in-Chief The BCA Journal (BLACK COACHES ASSOCIATION)
P. O. Box 4040
Culver City, CA 90231-4040
Dear M.r Washington:
I’ve coached college tennis for 30-plus years and I have been dismayed by the preponderance of international players who have usurped many tennis scholarships from American youngsters.
There seems to be a trend toward this in basketball. Has the BCA addressed the danger to American student athletes this poses, in particular college basketball. Should there be a limit to this?
If your Journal has addressed this issue, please let me know. It seems basketball is a game that this should concern.
ETP:1h
Sincerely,
Tom Parham
Men’s Tennis Coach
March 9, 1998
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This cropped up for me in 1970. Tennis has lost scholarships, choice of schools, team opportunities, winning, the quality of player abilities, gained student debt, coaching and teaching jobs, and on and on.
Calipari spotlighted current similarities with American college basketball. Any international sport has the same potential ( track, soccer, golf, volleyball,).
The Little Green Book of Tennis 