Wilson’s Men’s Soccer Team Helps International Students Feel at Home
By Frances Caroscio
Even before soccer entered the landscape at Wilson as a men’s varsity sport, the game brought students together on campus.

Bassil Andijani ’18, an international student from Saudi Arabia, and Jessie Smith ’18, an international student from Jamaica, helped organize campus pick-up soccer games prior to the 2015-16 school year. They met up every week or so to play in the field house, with some members of the women’s soccer team joining in occasionally. To organize the indoor games, “We would just text everyone,” Smith said.

So when soccer became a men’s varsity sport last year, Andijani, Smith and several others from the campus pick-up games joined the team. In its inaugural year, seven of the 18 students on the men’s soccer team were international students. This year’s roster has grown to 23 players, nine of whom are international. With players from six different countries outside the U.S.—including England, Ghana, Jamaica, Saudi Arabia, New Zealand and Spain—the team embraces a wide range of cultural backgrounds.

“It’s not like it’s just the American culture. You get a lot of different cultures from other places” on the team, said Dan Perry ’20, a first-year student from London. Soccer provides a common bond for the players, and for the international students, the game is something familiar that they bring with them from their home country.  “We all play football and it’s the one thing we have in common,” Perry said. “It’s such a big culture thing for us in England. It’s our lifestyle, pretty much.”

The blending of players from different cultures also creates a team with varied styles of play, according to the team’s head coach, Caleb Davis. “It’s really cool to take players from all over the world—and then also Maryland, New Jersey, New York—and put them together on the field,” he said. The team plays as a unit because members established strong bonds through the common thread of their love of soccer, according to Davis. “No one knew each other and they clicked,” he said.

Kevin Lysaght ’19  of Toms River, N.J., has been a part of Wilson men’s soccer team since its inception. The coaches have stressed the family dynamic since day one, he said. “It’s the easiest way to connect, off the field, on the field—no matter what happens, we’re all together.”

Last year, Davis had the team over to his house for Thanksgiving dinner and he cooked all of the traditional fare. The tradition may have been unfamiliar to some of the international students, but as Andijani explained, “It was a great experience and most importantly, we got a chance to gather as a family and eat.”

The team also fosters male friendships on a campus that remains more than 80 percent women. “If I need help with things for school, I can ask them,” Andijani said of his teammates, underscoring how the team offers a support network.

The soccer team plays a big role in the international students’ American experiences. Members often eat dinner, study, play video games and watch soccer games together. Davis will bring pizza to the student center when the players watch televised soccer games. When they watch big matches, many of them root for different teams. “They trash talk if their favorite teams are different. It’s almost like brothers picking on each other,” Davis said.

Although the soccer team is tightly knit, they bring their sense of family out into the larger Wilson community. “We hang out with the women’s soccer team—they come play indoors with us,” said Lysaght. “We hang out with the softball team…It helps us get together, but then again, everyone gets together here. The entire school is family-oriented.”