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Wittenberg University Basketball Teams Take Part In Educational Experience of a Lifetime

Posted March 15, 2002
Posted by: Ryan Maurer

Men's Basketball Players (from left) Evan Bedel, B.J. Harris, Danny Brywczynski and Kenny Molz fill out paperwork for their passports at the Springfield Post Office.

SPRINGFIELD, Ohio - To coin a phrase, the Wittenberg University men's and women's basketball teams got next. The courts on which they will play the games, however, are more than 2,000 miles away.

The teams, both of which won the North Coast Athletic Conference regular season championships in the recently completed 2001-02 season, will be making an 11-day trip to China in May that is funded by Wittenberg's East Asian Studies (EAS) program that was awarded a $1.9 million grant from the Freeman Foundation late last year. The foundation is committed to increasing, strengthening and popularizing the teaching of Asia in college and university classrooms, in part by creating opportunities for students to experience Asian cultures for themselves.

The grant, the largest single foundation grant ever received by a Wittenberg program or department, totals $1,958,723 and is being distributed over a four-year period. With the grant, the EAS program aims to ensure that all students, regardless of their course of study, have an encounter with Asia as part of their undergraduate experience through increased opportunities for scholarly work in Asia for both faculty and students, recruitment efforts of high school students interested in pursuing Asian studies and the creation of new opportunities for student travel abroad.

That's where the basketball trip comes in. According to Stan Mickel, professor of languages at Wittenberg and organizer of the excursion, the plan is to take different groups of students to China in each of the next four years. The basketball teams were chosen in part because "we were looking for an already cohesive group on campus to go on the first trip," Mickel said.

A total of 29 players, 15 men and 14 women, are making the trip along with assistant men's coach J.J. Searls, head women's coach Pam Smith, assistant women's coach Jen Parsons and Mickel. They are tentatively scheduled to play three games each, but the mission of the trip, which includes stops in Shanghai, Beijing and Xian, is to provide a unique educational experience of which playing games is just a small part.

"It's a two-pronged approach. We want to introduce the students to high culture," said Mickel, referring to the Great Wall of China, the Jade Buddha Temple, museums and shows, among other things. "We also want to introduce them to regular Chinese people. Part of that will be accomplished by playing basketball games, but much of it will be in their interactions with the Chinese people on their own."

Wittenberg men's basketball Head Coach Bill Brown, for one, is grateful for this opportunity for his players for several reasons. He said that his student-athletes are "beneficiaries of a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity" to experience Chinese culture while continuing to foster relationships with teammates and the players on the women's team.

"We already have really good chemistry among the players in our program," Brown said. "I hope that this trip will solidify lifetime relationships among our players.

"This is not a basketball adventure; this is a Wittenberg student adventure, and it's something they'll always remember."

Smith is also grateful for the experience. She says the anticipation is beginning to build as preparations for the trip intensify and the reality of this trip across the globe sets in.

"I'm very excited," she said. "Both from an educational standpoint and from a basketball standpoint, this is something to really look forward to. We will be traveling to a different country, and I hope we make the most of a wonderful experience and a unique opportunity."

A pioneer in East Asian Studies when founded in 1970, Wittenberg's EAS program now stands as one of the preeminent academic programs in the nation. More than 400 students have graduated with a degree in East Asian Studies since the program began, and most are either employed or attending graduate school immediately upon graduation, thanks in part to the vast network of contacts and connections established by the program's faculty members.