International Student-Athletes Boost Teams, Enrich Campus Life

Soccer is an international game that’s popular the world over. At Molloy University, that popularity can translate into more than one language being spoken among teammates energetically running up and down the field of play.

Men’s soccer isn’t the only sport where international student-athletes have found a home at Molloy. The women’s tennis team and the men’s basketball squad also feature players from outside the United States.

In the just-completed academic year, Molloy teams had seven international players from these countries: England (2), Germany, Belgium, Venezuela, Norway and Australia.

Incoming international student-athletes will be joining the women’s basketball and volleyball teams.

The Lions compete in NCAA Division II play. The university is a member of the East Coast Conference (ECC), with local schools including Mercy College, Dobbs Ferry; St. Thomas Aquinas College, Sparkill; the College of Staten Island; and Queens College.    

The Best Players

For men’s soccer and women’s tennis, international representation isn’t a novelty or a rare occurrence. It’s more a matter of fielding the best players, who happen to hail from other countries.

“You can’t compete at this level unless you have an international presence,” said Kelly Sacco, Molloy’s assistant director of athletics for communications.

“All the schools that we’re competing against have a high international presence in their athletic department,” she said.

Most international student-athletes enter Molloy as transfer students, often as juniors or seniors. There is a practical reason for this, as those who come this way “are cleared to be in this country,” which makes their transfers the same as any other student’s, Sacco said.

International athletes tend to be a little older and more mature, because of educational standards in their home countries.

The men’s soccer team had four international players—two from England and one each from Germany and Norway—in the fall 2022 season.

Ryan Dobson, 23, now a senior midfielder, was a key player who provided timely and critical goals for last year’s squad which was undefeated in conference play.

“We won the regular season for the first time,” said Dobson, whose team fell just short in the ECC championship final match, losing to Mercy College on penalty kicks.

Last season was Dobson’s first at Molloy after transferring from Northwood University in Michigan. His play earned him recognition as junior male and overall male athlete of the year in Molloy’s athletic department.

Dobson, a native of Liverpool, said he enjoys playing in the New York area, with an exposure to talented international players, including those on his Molloy team, and favors the multi-cultural atmosphere on the team and the Rockville Centre campus.

“A lot of the New York guys have shown me about New York and Long Island,” Dobson said. “We all spend time with each other outside soccer. So, that’s always a good thing.”

He endorses the style of play and methods of the team’s new coach, Matthew Sloan, a Hicksville native who played collegiately at American University and Fordham University.

New Style of Play

“We’re trying to play a different style, which is nice—to keep the ball more,” said Dobson, a first-team all-ECC player last season. “Our players want to play like that because it’s more fun.”

Dobson, a marketing major, will enroll this fall in the culminating Capstone course in the School of Business. He will also serve as an intern in the athletic department where he will help with social media postings for men’s soccer, among other tasks.

When Dobson was asked whether he hopes to stay in the United States after graduation, he said, “I would like to. I need to start looking for a job in order to stay here. That’s my goal.”

Molloy’s suburban location near New York City is a drawing card because international student-athletes already know it well as a center for various industries and as a “melting pot” of different cultures, Sacco said.

“Molloy is strong academically and we’re competitive athletically,” she said. “It gives them an overall positive experience for their college years.”

Increasing the number of international students at Molloy would give such athletes a “sense of community to feel they have a larger network of people that are like them.”

Having international students as teammates also benefits American student-athletes who are enriched by the exposure to other cultures on their own campus, she explained.

Noor Goyvaerts, 21, a senior from Antwerp, Belgium, played first or second singles and doubles last fall, her first at Molloy after transferring from Cardinal Stritch University in Wisconsin.

Her activities at Molloy go beyond the tennis court. She serves as a member of the student athletic advisory committee and leads campus tours as a student ambassador.

“She’s taken full advantage of the Molloy experience from the start,” Sacco said.

Last year, Goyvaerts was one of four new players, three transfers and one freshman, on the women’s team. The fall 2022 season was also the first one for coach Glen Nathan, whose calm demeanor and ability to bring out the best in his players was cited by Goyvaerts.

All for Molloy

The school’s early fall tennis schedule fits well with her academic load as a biology major on the pre-med/pre-graduate research track. The ability to do three semesters of research as an undergraduate was a big point in Molloy’s favor. She is returning this summer to do an internship at a Long Island lab.

New York’s fast-moving nature, not unlike her home city of Antwerp, is appealing to her. “That’s what I love about it. I like the busyness,” she said.

Goyvaerts is not hesitant about promoting Molloy, especially her connections with faculty and fellow students. “I genuinely am always happy to tell them why I love Molloy,” she said.