SAC Championship Special Feature: Global Audience Has its Eyes on SAC Tennis

The 2012 Food Lion South Atlantic Conference Men's and Women's Tennis Championships will be followed by many fans of the participating schools. But with players like Lincoln Memorial's Philipp Hoffman and Mars Hill's Erika Pinate, it won't just be Americans paying attention to the action in Rock Hill.

Tennis has always been known as worldwide sport. In today's tennis landscape, the top players in the world all represent different nations. Novak Djokovic, the No. 1-ranked professional, hails from Serbia, and in all, seven nations are represented of the top-10 of the current ATP rankings.

Within the SAC's rosters, there are 174 tennis student-athletes with 61 -- more than one-third -- calling somewhere else other than the United States their home. To put this statistic in perspective, there are more players representing the conference's schools from Brazil (13) than the state of Florida (eight).

The top talent in the SAC spans much of the globe. Hoffman, last season's conference Player of the Year, is a native of Karlsruhe, Germany, a city of a little less than 300,000 people near the France border.

Hoffmann, who led Lincoln Memorial to a third-place finish this season, is one of seven players on the LMU roster from foreign countries. The transition from Germany to the rural Tennessee may appear difficult, but Hoffman insists that wasn't the case.

"It was definitely a big adjustment for me at the beginning," Hoffman said. "It took a couple of weeks until I really felt at home here at LMU.

In fact, the junior looks towards academics and tennis as a bit of an escape.

"My school work and tennis distract me from the fact that I'm away from home," he adds.

Erika Pinate had a different route to the United States, as the two-time SAC Women's Tennis Player of the Year hails from Caracas, Venezuela. The senior is many miles away from home, but she still feels comfortable at Mars Hill.

"I am completely happy with my decision to come to Mars Hill College," Pinate said. "I feel like I am at home at Mars Hill. It is unbelievable the support that you get from your coach, professors classmates and, of course, your teammates."

Technology has come a long way over the past few years and this has made communication with loved ones at home much easier for international student-athletes.

"Technology has made everything easier," Pinate explains. "I communicate with my family every day, which makes this experience easier for me."

Pinate explains that having international players here in the United States is a good way to show off the talent across the world.

"I think international students show we have a good level of tennis," Pinate says. "It is very important for the college itself to have some international students, so other students can learn different cultures and traditions."

Both Hoffman and Pinate see a bright future and a great opportunity for foreign-born players to attend college in the United States.

"Playing on a team at an American college is a great opportunity to study abroad," Hoffman said. "In my opinion, the trend will continue.

"Those who participate in college tennis will find benefits that last a lifetime."

(Brandon McGinnis is currently in his fourth month as an intern at the SAC. Originally from Ohio, he is working towards a sports management degree at Winthrop University in Rock Hill, S.C.)