Men’s Soc­cer Rep­re­sents Bethel Uni­ver­si­ty’s Di­verse Stu­dent Body

MISHAWAKA—The Bethel Men’s Soc­cer pro­gram has drawn ath­letes from all around the globe. The 2021-22 ros­ter is drawn from 21 dif­fer­ent coun­tries! One of at­trib­utes that Bethel re­ally pushes for­ward is how eth­ni­cally di­verse their cam­pus is. Ac­cord­ing to their web­site around 33% of un­der­grad­u­ate stu­dents are from eth­ni­cally, and cul­tur­ally, di­verse back­grounds. The same can be said for a ma­jor­ity of the Men’s soc­cer team.

“I think what is unique about col­lege soc­cer is that it at­tracts kids from all around the world be­cause kids want to play at a high level and com­bine ed­u­ca­tion,” Men’s Soc­cer Head Coach, Thi­ago Pinto said. “The US has that sys­tem that is very unique. In many dif­fer­ent parts of the world, you have to choose a path. You have to ei­ther play at a high level or go to col­lege.”

The team has play­ers from five dif­fer­ent con­ti­nents, and the ques­tion that arises is how does Bethel pull so many peo­ple from so many dif­fer­ent places? One of the things that Bethel prides it­self on is how much in­ter­ac­tion hap­pens be­tween both the staff and the com­mu­nity that sur­rounds the cam­pus. For ath­letes, the main pull is how suc­cess­ful so many of Bethel’s ath­letic pro­grams are. The school boasts 43 na­tional cham­pi­onships among all its ath­letic teams. The Bethel Men’s Soc­cer team boasts a na­tional ti­tle but has a long his­tory of in­di­vid­u­als who have played at an ex­tremely high level for the pro­gram. 

“I think the main thing that draws peo­ple to Bethel are our staff, our his­tory, and the peo­ple that make up Bethel Uni­ver­sity,” Pinto said. “We al­ways tell our play­ers, and our re­cruits, that it is so much more than a game. Every pregame and prac­tice we talk about our vi­sion and pur­pose. The win­ning is a byprod­uct of be­ing the best ver­sion of our­selves, and who we were cre­ated to be.”

One of the main chal­lenges that arises when talk­ing about a di­verse group of peo­ple is com­mu­ni­ca­tion. Ob­vi­ously be­ing in the United States, our pri­mary lan­guage is Eng­lish, but the dif­fer­ences go much deeper than lan­guage. Many dif­fer­ent cul­tures are very dras­ti­cally dif­fer­ent from what we con­sider nor­mal. This leads to a num­ber of chal­lenges that the coach­ing staff has had to learn to tackle. These in­clude talk­ing with their play­ers, show­ing honor to the dif­fer­ent cul­tures that are rep­re­sented on the team, and mak­ing sure that the play­ers feel com­fort­able in a new en­vi­ron­ment.

“Nor­mally lan­guage is the first ques­tion you think of when it comes to be­ing able to com­mu­ni­cate,” Pinto said. “How­ever, when it comes to soc­cer, the lan­guage be­comes sec­ondary be­cause the game and the way we play be­comes the way we com­mu­ni­cate with one an­other. The ben­e­fit of be­ing a part of an ed­u­ca­tional in­sti­tu­tion is that they have to at­tend Eng­lish classes. Al­though it is still a chal­lenge, I think one ben­e­fit that we have is that our staff is very di­verse. We have a coach from Zim­babwe, Brazil, and also some lo­cal coaches. It might seem to be a greater chal­lenge, but when we are so in­ten­tional with our pur­pose it be­comes eas­ier.”

As for the cur­rent sea­son, the Men’s Soc­cer team is off to a <record> start. This in­cluded a trip to Lake­land, Florida to al­low for the team to both bond as a team and be rep­re­sen­ta­tives of the Uni­ver­sity. In the past the soc­cer team has trav­eled to a va­ri­ety of dif­fer­ent places in­clud­ing Iowa and San Diego in the re­cent past. 

“I’m a huge be­liever in giv­ing these guys an ex­pe­ri­ence that forces [them] out of their com­fort zone,” Pinto said. “Over the years, we’ve done lots of trips that al­low for the play­ers to do dif­fer­ent things that they would­n’t do oth­er­wise. This has in­cluded work­ing with refugees in Chicago, and the last one we’ve done pre-pan­demic was in In­done­sia. This time in Florida, we stayed in a large house, rather than a ho­tel, to cre­ate a com­mu­nity within the team.”

The next time the Bethel Men’s Soc­cer team will take the field is on Sep­tem­ber 8^th against Trin­ity In­ter­na­tional at 7 p.m. at Morey Field. For more in­for­ma­tion about the Men’s Soc­cer team visit https://​www.bupi­lots.com/​sport/​mens-soc­cer.