“I’ve always wanted to play golf in the states as a college golfer,” said Moseley, a freshman on the MSU men’s golf team.

“I had the idea when I was 13 or 14, and since then, (I’ve) had the dream to come over here.”

Despite being from the United Kingdom, an area of the world rich in golf tradition, Moseley said his homeland presented limits on how far he could take his golf game.

“It’s sort of like there’s nothing to do after you finish your junior career,” he said.

“Either you’re good enough to turn pro or you have to practice hard and do nothing for a few years.”

Rather than try to make the difficult transition from playing junior golf in the United Kingdom to competing against the best professionals in the world, Moseley made the decision to follow his dream, leave his family and come to MSU to work on his game and receive an education.

“I’m finally here after a lot of work,” Moseley said with a smile.

Searching for opportunity

Moseley’s story is not the only one at MSU, where, in the 2009-10 school year, 36 international student-athletes have, or currently are, participating in 11 different varsity sports.

Coming from places as far away as Australia and Russia, international students make up 5 percent of the MSU student-athlete population.

Not only are these foreign athletes part of MSU teams, many, including Moseley, also are valuable contributors.

Nine international student-athletes at MSU have been named to all-conference teams, and two — field hockey senior midfielders Jeamie Deacon, from Ireland, and Floor Rijpma, from the Netherlands — have earned All-American honors.

Not every athlete comes to the MSU for the same reasons, but Moseley’s teammate, freshman Chenai Mushiri, said most leave their home for the U.S. in search of one thing: opportunity.

For Mushiri and other international student-athletes, that opportunity is being able to earn a college degree while also competing athletically.

Unlike the U.S., Mushiri’s home country of Zimbabwe did not offer him that chance.

“Where I come from, we don’t get that many opportunities,” he said.

“For me, the U.S. was the only place where I could come to pursue both school and golf at a high level.”

Zimbabwe is just one country where young people are limited in terms of what they can do after high school.

Athletes from countries without outlets that combine education and sports are left with a decision such as Moseley’s: try to make the jump to the professional ranks, give up the sport they love in lieu of school or travel to the U.S. for colleges where they can do both.

Nicole Herzog, a freshman on the MSU women’s tennis team from Brazil, faced that dilemma.

In Brazil, students do not have enough time to study and play tennis Herzog said, which is the key reason she came to the U.S. Had she stayed home, Herzog said she no longer would be playing tennis.

“I would have to choose between studying and playing professionally,” she said.

“Sometimes you’re not ready to go professional right after high school, and I didn’t think I was ready for that.”

Although playing sports tends to be the main reason international athletes come to the U.S., it often only is part of the equation.

Jantine Steinmetz, a junior forward on the field hockey team, said she came to MSU from the Netherlands to learn from the different culture in the U.S. and expose herself to things she couldn’t find at home.

“It’s the same as people from America going to Europe,” Steinmetz said.

“It’s a different experience. Everything is just totally different.”

Searching for talent

Athletes look to the U.S. for opportunity. Coaches look overseas for a competitive advantage.

Men’s golf head coach Sam Puryear said a player’s nationality isn’t important to him as long as he can add a good golfer to his program.

Puryear has three international student-athletes on his roster, and this fall signed two more — one from London and one from Scotland — for next season.

“I try to find the best players that I can find, wherever they are located in the world, period,” Puryear said.

“The talent level is really high all over the world.”

Other coaches have found recruiting overseas is more of a necessity than an attempt at getting ahead.

For women’s tennis head coach Simone Jardine, the importance comes from American players’ lack of interest in MSU tennis.

Jardine said she loses out on the top U.S. talent because those players want to go to schools where teams are perennially ranked, unlike MSU.

To combat that issue, she tries to find international players who just want a chance to play, regardless of the program.

“Bringing in the international kids is a way to get a ranking first,” Jardine said.

“Once that happens, those good American kids are going to want to come here.”

Sports such as field hockey that aren’t as popular in the U.S. also require international talent to be successful. Head coach Rolf Van de Kerkhof said his team, which won seven Big Ten Conference championships in the past decade, would be at a great disadvantage if he only were to recruit on U.S. soil.

“If you want to be the best, you have to see where the best hockey is being played,” Van de Kerkhof said.

“At this moment, it’s not in the U.S. It’s abroad.”

However, that does not mean he ignores the U.S. Van de Kerkhof said he believes the key to success is mixing styles of American and international athletes.

“The U.S. has what some other countries don’t have, but if you can bring those two together, then your team can be one of the best in the country, for sure,” Van de Kerkhof said.

“You have to look at both sides of the ocean.”

Van de Kerkhof and Jardine have an advantage over other coaches in recruiting outside of the country because of their backgrounds.

A native of the Netherlands, which is known for having some of the best field hockey talent in the world, Van de Kerkhof said he met various people during his own playing days who now are able to help him find players.

Jardine, from Brazil, also said she uses her world-wide connections, but said it isn’t always fool proof.

“With international kids, a lot of the times, it’s a risk that you take,” Jardine said.

“You are taking into consideration the views of people that you trust and videos that you watch online. For tennis, it’s hard to go based on that.”

Searching for a way

No matter how many connections coaches have throughout the world, some athletes are bound to fall through the cracks.

For the unseen, faraway athletes, the challenge is getting out their name — and skills — to U.S. coaches.

Amy Barton, a freshman on the MSU women’s tennis team and an Australia native, said she knew U.S. college tennis was her best chance to continue playing, earn a degree and maybe turn professional.

However, there was one issue standing in the way: where to start.

“I sent out e-mails to a lot of different coaches all over America,” Barton said.

“I didn’t really know any of the schools, I just sent them there because I was like, ‘Yeah, this could be cool.’”

Then it was a waiting game.

“They either say, ‘Yeah, send us a video of how you play,’ or, ‘No, we don’t have any scholarships left,’ or something like that.”

Being noticed is one thing. Becoming a serious prospective recruit is another.

Jardine said international recruits must go through extensive paperwork, such as applying for student visas and taking foreign language tests, before they are allowed to come to school.

“It took two to three months to get (Barton’s) paperwork done to come here,” Jardine said.

“For an American kid, it’s a matter of a couple weeks and they’re in.”

Finding a new home

Once at MSU, life doesn’t necessarily get easier for an international athlete.

Many, including Joelle van Ierland, a junior back on the field hockey team, come to the U.S. without being able to speak English very well.

Van Ierland said her poor English made for some misunderstandings and confusion in her early time at MSU, specifically an incident during her first preseason when she had to use the restroom.

“Supposedly, I said, ‘Can I do pee?’ instead of just, ‘Can I go to the bathroom?” van Ierland said, laughing.

“I don’t really think I said it, but apparently I did.”

Aside from the language barrier, the sometimes-extreme distance from their families can be difficult for international athletes. Simple things, such as having parents attend matches and games, almost are impossible.

However, as is the case for many teams with international athletes, the four Dutch on the field hockey team — Rijpma, Steinmetz, van Ierland and freshman forward Manouk Vernij — immediately came together to help each other deal with occasional homesickness.

By creating their own family-like atmosphere, van Ierland said it was easy to get through the hard times, enjoy her time at MSU and not regret her decision to leave home.

“You’re far away from home, you miss your family, but on the other hand, my entire team is far away from home,” Ierland said.

“From the first moment you have that clique, because we’re from Holland. You have that bond and you talk about things together. I’ve learned so much from all the other girls,” she said.

“Just being here, I’ve seen so much and it’s been awesome so far.”