Bradley Athletics Goes Global

College Sports have become increasingly interested in recruiting players from overseas to come not only for the athletics, but the academics. There has been a recent upward trend in the United States of collegiate players coming from foreign countries to play a variety of sports.

Bradley University has a total of 19 (14 men and 5 women) foreign born athletes competing for Bradley. Jayden Hodgson, Anneke Schlueter, Natalia Barbery are three athletes for Bradley who we sat down with to talk about their experiences being a student athlete at Bradley.

Anneke Schlueter is a 22 year old International Studies major from Ulm, Germany. She currently starts on the Bradley Women’s Basketball team. She started playing basketball from both her parents. At first she played field hockey, a popular sport in Europe, until both her older brothers started playing basketball and she joined in at age 8.

Map of Anneke’s trip from Germany to Peoria

Anneke never really thought about coming to the United States, until she played for the German Under 18 National Team and suggested she play in the United States. She thought it would be a good idea to go to college since she didn’t know what to do after high school. Coming to America to pursue a degree and play basketball was something her parents were on board with. But how did she hear about Bradley? The scout who saw her was good friends with former assistant Coach Scott. They got into contact and after exchanging emails she made the decision to attend Bradley.

Anneke is currently finishing her junior year at Bradley and said that so far it has been pretty good. This past year however, the team experienced a coaching change that she said was beneficial for the team. The new coach Anneke said pushed the team harder than they ever have bef

ore. In her first year at Bradley she was a little homesick because sh

e has never so far from home for so long, but she has gotten use to it. She keeps in contact with her family and it has really helped.

Jayden Hodgson currently is finishing his freshman season for the Bradley Braves Men’s Basketball Team. He is a 19 year old Sports Communication major from Central Coast, Australia just north of Sydney. He started playing basketball in Grade 1 when a kid moved to his school. His dad wanted to start a team after playing college basketball in the United States and Jayden joined. He didn’t know what basketball was when he signed up but he just kept playing for the fun.

Map of Jayden’s trip from Australia to Peoria

When it came to deciding to come to the United States, Jayden said basketball wasn’t a part of the decision, but his mom has really good friends in Cincinnati that were from Australia. He came over for Christmas when he was around 10, and my mom said the United States was a great place to get an education. She wanted Jayden to possibly come to Cincinnati to live with their friends and attend school. Jayden really enjoyed his visit which included a Bengals football game, seeing snow, and attending a hockey game.

Jayden got a call from Bradley and wasn’t sure who Bradley was. He decided after some research to visit Bradley and the possibility of attending school in America. This was his only visit he made and before he returned home to Australia he committed to play basketball at Bradley. J

ayden just finished up his freshman year at Bradley and said it has been an interesting experience. Just the realization of playing Division 1 basketball with how many people try to play is very eye opening. Jayden learned a lot his freshman season at Bradley and he hopes that will carry him through the next three seasons.

The schooling and work load is similar to back home for Jayden as well as the campus life to what he has seen from the movies. However, he said it is different because of where people live, nobody really lives on campus and there is no fraternities or sororities.

The last person we got a chance to interview is Natalia Barbery who is curently finishing up her freshman year at Bradley as a member of the Women’s tennis team. Natalia first started playing when she was at a young age. Since her Uncle played tennis and they lived next to a country club, Natalia decided to join some of her friends and play tennis with them for fun. She likes to compete she started playing it a lot more.

Map of Natalia’s trip from Bolivia to Peoria

Natalia mainly came here for industrial engineering because it is well k

nown the program is a lot better in the US than back home. Because she didn’t want to stop playing tennis she thought taking the scholarship and coming to America to study would be a great idea. Natalia practiced in Florida for two years before coming here and played in a lot of tournaments before coming to Bradley.

Something that really helped with her recruitment was Bradley recruiting her a lot earlier than the other coaches who recruited her and so she was able to build a connection. Bradley was the first place she came to visit and  really liked it. Natalia felt that Bradley would be a great place for her to spend the next four years. Her first year at Bradley has been amazing and the engineering program is as well as the team is awesome.  Everyone has made her feel welcomed and at home since the day she stepped on campus.

Natalia and her teammates just finished the MVC tournament were they made it to the championship match against Southern Illinois. Although the Braves fell short, Natalia made a great impact on the team and has a bright future for the Braves.

Bradley will continue to recruit international players for multiple sports. Sports continue to grow and attract kids from all over the world to come to America and play while getting an education.