Tennis Coach Silviu Tanasoiu came to speak to us at the most recent Rose Scholars Café. Through his talk, he spoke a lot about sports and university and how the two went together. As a student athlete, I related to this talk and all he said. While he was specifically talking about tennis and his experiences, I recognized my own experiences in running and life here at Cornell in those stories as well. I understood the 7 hour drives on the weekend to compete, only to come back and be up doing homework all night. Or the scheduling the days perfectly so that everything fits in around practices. In addition, he talked about the recruiting process and how that all worked for tennis. It reminded me of my own recruitment process and the reasons that I chose to come to Cornell. Although being a student athlete may be really busy, I do enjoy it and appreciate the opportunity I have here at Cornell. His speech reminded me of that and I appreciated it, since it is so easy to lose sight of that.
One story he told was of a player he was recruiting and his mother. He talked about how the mother of the athlete only spoke Russian, so he had no way of communicating with her. But he eventually wrote a letter to get into contact with her, and he thinks that’s how the student ended up at Cornell. In the process of sports, the people who support us are often times lost in the shuffle. But with out the support of the parents and family members, I know I would not be where I am today. To see a coach recognize and appreciate this was amazing. All around, I enjoyed his talk about the combination of athletics and university.