Men’s Tennis Team Brings Together International Players

by Abigail Wisniewski

The members of Concordia’s men’s tennis team come from not only across the nation but around the world. The players are from four different countries on three different continents.

International representation includes juniors Patricio Esquivel and Javier Moreno from Morelia, Mexico, freshman Willy Pardos from Pamplona, Spain, and freshman Thomas Greeff from Pretoria, South Africa.

The international players learned about Concordia through recruitment companies and their coaches in their home countries.

“In Spain we don’t have college sports, so if you practice in a sport and you are going to college you need to stop playing,” Pardos said. “Here we have the opportunity to do both.”

“We have world outreach because we have people that are interested in coming to such a rich university with such great heritage,” coach Joel Reckewey said. “Concordia speaks for itself.”

The diverse tennis backgrounds of the international players add an edge of competition to the team.

“If they come from other countries it’s because they play good,” Pardos said. “Competition is good. It makes us better.”

Training for tennis players varies from country to country. Esquivel said that training at Concordia involves more weight lifting and agility work than he experienced in Mexico.

“I think it’s very cool because we all have different styles of tennis that we play,” Esquivel said. “We know different styles of play that can help us with different opponents.”

The team’s variety of cultures brings different methods of practice and play to the team, as well as a blend of backgrounds and languages.

“You learn a lot, not only about each other, but where people are from and why they are the way they are,” Reckewey said.

Languages barriers come with cultural diversity.

“Freshman year there was a huge language barrier,” Esquivel said.

Esquivel, Moreno and Pardos speak Spanish, and Reckewey paired Moreno and Pardos together because of their chemistry and ability to speak the same language.

“Willy’s a great person,” Moreno said. “When we play doubles we can talk actually in Spanish, so that’s easier for me to say some stuff.”

“My job as a coach is to take a look at what we have as far as our ability levels and put them together so that we have team cohesiveness,” Reckewey said, “so that we really play together for the right reasons, which would be to play for something greater than ourselves.”