Globetrotters, continued...
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Two Lady Cru-saders chat during a chance meeting at the Hart Center in January. Gleefully, Amy O’Brien ’99 and Kaitlin Foley ’07 swap horror stories about playing pro basketball abroad.
Despite their grief during brief stays, O’Brien and Foley find relief in humor. And the two stellar centers agree on one thing—they are glad they gave it a shot.
O’Brien, a Varsity Club Hall of Famer, had her fling in Germany. Her connection was ex-Crusader standout Pat Elzie ’84, still coaching in Germany. With his help, she lands a job with a second-division club in Cochem near Bonn.
Foley signs with a Spanish league second-level team in the Canary Islands.
O’Brien and Foley share experiences that are typical on the international circuit. They are misled by false promises. They do not speak their team’s native language. They cannot understand their coaches and teammates. They feel isolated. They have no job security.
“I realized that the missing element was teamwork,” says Foley. “I really missed playing at Holy Cross where teamwork was everything. I was averaging 10 points, and 11 rebounds, but that joy of playing the game together was not there. I was the only American. My teammates ranged from 18-to-27 years old. Some were students, some were mothers, some worked all day—so we practiced at night.”
Although she takes Spanish classes there, Foley doesn’t understand much of her coach’s pep talks. Her teammates call her “Kate,” which confuses her because that sounds as if they are saying “que,” the Spanish interrogative for “what.”
“The coach spouted all these team rules in Spanish,” she recalls. “Detailed things like what we could or could not wear on the plane. I didn’t understand a word she was saying and got fined constantly.”
Her teammates do not warm up to her until near the end of her stay when she starts baking them brownies and cookies.
“I learned a life lesson about how to treat outsiders,” says the sociology major. After nearly four months and 13 games with Caja Canarias, Foley returns home, two days before Christmas. She is now exploring other career options.
O’Brien had similar communication problems. The psychology/Spanish double major could not understand German.
“Our Polish coach spoke only Polish, and everything he said was translated into German,” she explains. “The level of competition was awful. Players smoked and came in all shapes and sizes. We only played once a week and practiced at night. The part-time job I was promised never happened. Though we were sponsored by an automobile company, the car they promised never arrived. I felt isolated, alone in my tiny apartment all day. I couldn’t watch TV and didn’t have enough money to travel the country.
“As a 6-foot-1 center, I thought I’d be able to work on my guard skills and maybe get a shot at the WNBA. But they ran practices backward—had us running laps instead of wind sprints. We could not have beaten my Holy Name High School team.”
After a half dozen games over two months’ time, O’Brien decides to refocus. She comes home, teaches Spanish and coaches at a prep school for two years, runs the Boston Marathon for kicks, gets a master’s degree in education and teaches middle school. She marries John Davagian, a Lehigh grad who is a vice president of a software company. She is now a stay-at-home mom, who does basketball commentary for local cable TV, referees basketball and juggles two daughters, Katie, 3, and Alison, who will be 2 in September.
“I was 21 and went to have a little fun,” says O’Brien. “It was nice to walk away on my own terms.”
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Kevin Hamilton ’06 is making a pit stop during his international travels, returning to Worcester to close a deal on a condo, which, he says, will be his home base of operations when his playing days are done.
On this Jan. 18, he would get his business done, take in the Holy Cross-Bucknell game that night and catch a Saturday flight to Puerto Rico where he plays in the Baloncesto Superior National (BSN).
Hamilton bounced from Puerto Rico to Grundianz, Poland, to Besancon, France, and back to Puerto Rico.
In Poland, the locals would surround Hamilton and his Polpak Swiece teammates in pubs and serenade them with Polish fight songs.
“We would get used to the melodies, and we would end up singing along,” Hamilton recalls.
In France, the hardest adjustment is double kissing.
“They kiss both sides of your cheeks every time they see you…neighbors, team assistants, everyone,” he says. “I kissed my next-door neighbors more than I kissed the women in my own family.”
Puerto Rico is much more laid back, Hamilton says, while European basketball seems like a matter of life and death to fans. The atmosphere can be cutthroat.
“If they find someone as good, but cheaper,” he says, “you lose your job.”
Hamilton goes where the pay is best and spotlight is brightest. This summer he will try to get a spot in the Lakers summer league. He hopes he will be noticed and, just maybe, land an NBA contract as a role player.
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He is sitting in his living room in Poughkeepsie, N.Y., when his agent calls. The next thing Patrick Whearty ’03 knows, he is being transported in time to San Nicholas, Argentina, and is surrounded by a very angry mob.
“I’m at home and then, 24 hours later, I’m wearing a Boca Juniors (Buenos Aires) uniform and being attacked by a bunch of crazies,” Whearty recalls.
Such is the life of an itinerant international hoopster. Out of work one moment and plopped into some strange place the next. During the five years since graduation, Whearty has played in Brazil, Argentina, the Ukraine, France and, currently, in Japan. He has played in camps and tournaments in Switzerland, Belarus, Italy and Uruguay.
The rabid fans in Argentina apparently do not appreciate being thumped by Whearty and his brand new teammates.
“The police barged onto the court with riot-control shields and escorted us to the team bus,” he recalls.
This season, in Japan, things are much more cordial. Whearty and his ’89er teammates in Sendai can relax in natural hot spring tubs and enjoy sushi. Companionship is good. Four Americans are allowed to play on each of the 10 Basketball Japan League (BJL) teams. Whearty is a prized 6-foot-10 center.
“I never guard a Japanese player,” he notes. “All the forwards and centers are Americans.”
His season is long, beginning in October and ending in May. In January, Whearty, averaging 12 points and nine rebounds, is voted by fans to the BJL All-Star team—and plays in an exhibition in Okinawa.
“The league is well run and we are paid on time, which is not the case in some countries,” he says.
Whearty recalls going into a shabby office in the Ukraine, and a guy asking how much he is owed. He tells him he has $35,000 coming—his signing bonus and a month’s pay.
The guy takes out a wad of bills, peels off $35 grand, puts the money in a plastic bag and hands it to me,” Whearty says.
At midseason, he is talking about giving up pro ball. His girlfriend of four years, Dr. Selma Mizouni, practices medicine in Orlando, Fla.
“My back and knees are bothering me from so much playing,” he explains. “The pain has taken some of the joy away. It may be time to come home. I’ll decide after the season.”
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There are others still in the international game. Keith Simmons ’07 averaged 15 points this season in Turkey’s top league. Nate Lufkin ’05 performed as a solid center for Zwolle in the Netherlands.
Rob Feaster ’95, ranked second on the Crusaders all-time scoring list, ended a fine 10-year pro career in 2006 after playing in Australia, France and Germany and, also, for the Connecticut Pride in the Continental Basketball Association (see Holy Cross Magazine, winter/spring 2005 issue). Married and the father of four, Feaster works as an employment recruiter in Chicago.
Some stayed. After playing for years, Pat Elzie ’83 remains in Germany, now coaching in Kirchheim. Dual-citizen Eileen Bradley ’97 played pro-level ball in Ireland; now she works as a Price Waterhouse actuary in Dublin while keeping fit in a semipro league there.
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It’s clear that the wild and wooly world of international hoops is not for the faint of heart, but every Crusader we talked to emphasized that playing abroad is a gift they would never return.
John W. Gearan ’65, was an award-winning reporter and columnist at the Worcester Telegram and Gazette for 36 years. He resides in Woonsocket, R.I., with his wife, Karen Maguire, and their daughter, Molly.
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