Worldwide WolfPack: An International Soccer Collection
(Story submitted by Madison College Athletics)
Whether you say Ola, Hola, Hej, Mhoro, Salam, Moin, or just Hello, at least one member of the 2024 Madison College men's soccer team will probably answer back. That's because the WolfPack has 13 athletes who were born in countries outside of the United States and spanning five continents and 13 countries. The team also has 11 second-generation players on the team, several who are the first members of their families to attend college. In all, the Pack can collectively speak eight different languages.
"I think being in a city like Madison is a special experience with the college atmosphere that we have with UW, but obviously we share that with our location," said second-year head coach Logan Fye, "And then I think we have the appeal of the price tag in addition to the high-quality academics and facilities."
The WolfPack has 13 athletes born in countries outside of the United States: Riaan Amini, a first-year forward from Victoria, Zimbabwe; Victor Dalum, a first-year goalkeeper from Odense, Denmark; Felipe Dewes, a second-year midfielder from Carlos Barbosa, Brazil; Joao Forte, a first-year forward from São Paulo, Brazil; Enzo Guimarães, a second-year goalkeeper from São Paulo, Brazil; Rodrigo Lasso, a first-year midfielder from Panama City, Panama; Cole Rogers, a first-year midfielder, from Auckland, New Zealand; Tristan Steinhoff, a first-year defender from Hamburg, Germany; Fabrizio Villa, a first-year forward from Lima, Peru; John Soberon-Chehade, a second year forward from Colombia, Lukas Dogru, a first year forward from Turkey; Jalen Thao, a first year defender/midfielder from Laos, and Damo Lovell, a second year defender from Ethiopia.
Additionally, six players (Geo Prado, Alfredo Herrera, Junior Guerrero, JJ Espinosa, Bryan Garcia, and Adair Tlatoa) are here after their parents immigrated from Mexico, while another player, Tomas Garcia, grew up in Madison after his parents arrived from Argentina. And second year goalkeeper Ayden White is a member of the Lac Courte Oreilles, a band of Lake Superior Ojibwe.
Coming to America
Fye, who communicates with foreign recruits, parents, and agents via WhatsApp or Zoom video calls, is getting used to being contacted by foreign athletes.
"When I took over here, I think in the first week or so, I got blown up by about 15 to 20 different agents that are like 'Hey, I got ten players that are still looking' and I'm like 'Oh, how serious are they? Do they know anything about Madison?'
"It kind of goes pretty quickly, which is bizarre because the commitment to travel across the world and put your trust in somebody you don't know and in a school you don't know anything about in a place you don't know anything about is a hard concept to understand. But for some of these players that I've come across and interacted with, it's the opportunity."
Guimarães got an early start on his U.S. career as his agent connected him with the Eagle School in Richland Center, a school known for its connections with Brazilian athletes. After an online sophomore year during COVID, he came to Wisconsin for his junior and senior seasons at Eagle School. Several of his Eagle School teammates attended Madison College, so Guimarães followed in their footsteps, participating in tryouts and finding his next soccer home.
For the Brazilian, coming to the U.S. was a big culture change. "I think that the experience that I've gained from being able to be in a new culture and having to be on my own and deal with my own stuff has been great. Before I came to the U.S., I was already really into the American culture because I wanted to be able to learn and my main thing was my accent. I wanted to be able to speak in a way that was fluent. I spent a lot of time watching (American) shows and listening to music, trying to sing along."
For Amini, he came directly to Madison from Zimbabwe. He got assistance from a teammate's agent and after submitting a highlight video, a number of coaches were interested in him, including Fye.
"I didn't know anything about Wisconsin," said Amini. "But I liked the the campus and the field, and the coach was pretty nice to me, as well. The tough thing for me is the communication. I find it difficult to communicate here because English is not my first language."
For team bonding, the WolfPack did the ropes course on the Madison College campus early in the season. According to Fye, "That was an uncomfortable experience that everyone either hated or loved. It was fun to see people out of their comfort zone, which is good."
The team also had a team dinner at Fye's house, where they competed in backyard games and talked about the core values of the team. The team has shirts with those core values on the back: discipline, respect, and be a pack.
"We want to be one as a group and be united in all our efforts to achieve success on the field and in the classroom," said Fye. "We have to know how to be an appropriate member of the squad and respect each other."
Feeling at home
According to Fye, the locals players have done a great job of welcoming the foreign players on to the team.
Fye gave the example of Carter Uhlmann, a second-year forward from nearby Oregon, and Damo Lovell, a second-year defender from De Pere, who helped Dalum upon his arrival in Madison. Dalum was ill and homesick, having a difficult time adjusting to a new program and new country. The local players invited Dalum into their homes, seeing what family life is like in the U.S. Fye also credits Jacob Unger, a first-year defender from Sussex, who took Dalum to a Brewers game and trap shooting, things that an international student wouldn't normally experience.
"It's a family environment," said Fye. "It's an atmosphere that we try to build. No matter where you come from, no matter who you are, you are given respect. You are given an environment where you can be yourself, but also become a part of this experience and I think they've all done that."
Meshing on the field
But one thing is the same worldwide, according to Amini. "I think pretty much soccer is the same everywhere. What changes things is the love for the sport. In my opinion, if you're in Brazil or Zimbabwe or anywhere, you're just playing soccer."
That love of the sport has made the 2024 WolfPack unique among teams in Region 4 and beyond.
"I think that each place brings their own skill set to the game," said Guimaraes. "It's really cool to see how we melt down to form a really unique group of players. We have a group that is completely unique from any other team that we play throughout the season because of that melting pot that we have going on.
"I think you can tell at times obviously some people have different styles of play but with the structure that Logan's trying to teach us, I think everyone's kind of getting on the right path."
Fye and his staff have worked with the players to combine all of the different styles into one cohesive unit.
"Rodrigo (Lasso), coming from Panama, is a very skilled dribbler and creative on the ball. He plays the game differently than our German center back Tristan (Steinhoff), who's a little bit more rigid and plays pretty consistently. They bring different styles from their background and experience so from my point of view, I think it's putting them in place, creating an environment that's welcoming and allows for them to be them, but also fits into the WolfPack soccer style of play.
"It's really kind of a system that allows players to express their own flavor within the way that we play. But what I think has been a really refreshing thing to see is how they've bought into getting to know each other and how each one plays with one another despite some cultural differences or even language barriers that are there.
Even with the communication challenges on the team, Fye has been impressed with how the players have been able to communicate with each other on the field. "Soccer is one of those things where you don't necessarily have to even use words to ask for the ball."
"It's been a special thing to see how they've bonded over even the littlest things like when we do just a friendly competition in training; the competitiveness that we have to be the best as a team but also bring each other along the way."
"When you're out there, it's pretty interesting but overall I'd say it's been going really well," said Bryan Garcia, a second-year midfielder from Madison. Garcia's parents come from Mexico and he is the first member of his family to attend college.
With the season counting down, Fye has seen notable improvement on how his team is playing and their communication. "I think we we have started to see it over the last couple weeks - figuring out a rotation and figuring out how certain guys play together. I think the guys have have been open and encouraging to one another and have found different ways to play with one another.
Learning new languages
With athletes speaking at least five native languages, communication on and off the field has been a challenge that the team has overcome this season.
Lasso speaks only Spanish, but with several members of the team already fluent in Spanish and others who are learning at least a few words of the language, communication is improving steadily on the field.
Even the players who don't speak any foreign language have picked up words in other languages to help the team on and off the field.
"We're developing in that area and it's a really unique and special thing to see that they are willing to do it and encouraging in that aspect as well," said Fye. "That is another thing that's taken time naturally. We've been going at this since Aug. 1, so it's been two months now and in that first ten days you could see there was natural cliques forming that still are evident today. The thing I ask of them is when you step on the field, try to go and knock the ball around with someone new, try to learn a little bit of something about someone new each day.
"They've naturally found different ways to support one another, but I really think that soccer is a universal language where they want to be successful and they're going to find any way that they can to be successful."
Bonding off the field
Off the field, the players share their cultures in different ways. Athletes will share music from their native countries, or food, including Garcia, who brought in empanadas for his teammates. Several of the players live on both sides of a duplex and often invite the team over to hang out.
"The guys from the team are just always over at our house," said Guimaraes. "We share food, listen to music, music from all around the world. We play some music in Portuguese, they like it. They play some they play some music from the U.S. Tristan shows us some some German music and Victor shows us some stuff from Denmark. I think it's really cool."
Garcia agrees. "It's actually quite fun when they invite us over to hang out. We'll all get together and have fun, so it's nice that everyone's within a certain distance."
Some of the players have had to step out of their comfort zones in order to bond with their teammates.
"For me, I didn't really like bonding with or I felt uncomfortable talking to people for the longest time because I came here in the spring," explained Amini. "I really didn't talk to other people because I was like, 'I'm different and all that.' But this semester, I would say the team bonding things that we've done — the dinner at Logan's house and the ropes course have helped me bond with other people because I realized you only need to ask one question to learn about other people."
Looking to peak in October
The WolfPack is in the final stretch of its season, looking to peak at the end of October in time for the Region 4 Tournament.
The team had a disappointing finish to the 2023 season, just missing post-season play by one position, a result that has "fueled the fire" of the second-year players, according to Fye. "I couldn't be happier with where we're at at this moment. Just getting into the playoffs is progress naturally, but we know that we are good enough to beat anybody."
"We just have to take care of what we can control, which is winning the next game on our schedule, and hopefully, at the end of it, we're in a place where we can play at home, where we're tough to beat."
Home. It's certainly has a whole different meaning for this worldwide WolfPack.