For nearly twenty-five years, the Ole Miss tennis team has been primarily made up of players who are not American.
The Ole Miss tennis team currently has three Germans, two Swedes, a Norwegian, a South African, and an American.
“Tennis is a world wide sport, and in order to compete at the highest level you have to be able to get the best guys from other countries”, explained Swedish born assistant coach, Tobie Hanson.
Coach Billy Chadwick first started bringing in foreign players around 25 years ago, and has continued to do so since then.
The trend of having foreign players on teams is not just at Ole Miss; seventy-five percent of the top 125 players in the country are foreign.
However, Ole Miss has had several American standouts in the past decade, Devin Britton being the most recent.
The Mississippi born Britton won the NCAA individual singles title, becoming the first freshman ever to do so.
North Carolinian, Robbye Poole, who graduated in 2007, also earned All-American honors and helped lead the Rebels to a #3 year end ranking.
The Ole Miss teams seem to thrive with the diverse languages, cultures, and styles of play that each member brings to the table.
“We tease each other a lot,” said senior tennis star, Tucker Vorster. “But at the end of the day I love all these guys and we’re a very close team.”
Ole Miss shows no signs of changing its trend of recruiting foreign players.
The program recently landed Nik Scholtz, a South African player who will certainly be among the nation’s best players.
http://www.olemisssports.com/sports/m-tennis/ole-m-tennis-body.html
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