Over the summer break, Trinity University had not one, not two, but seven Tigers participating in international competition, taking the school’s reputation from a national level to a global one.
Six men’s basketball players and head coach Jimmy Smith traveled over 7,000 miles to Handan, China, representing Team USA in the FIBA 3-on-3 Under-21 Nations League. Over 6,500 miles away in New Zealand, Malea Cesar, first-year women’s soccer player, joined the Philippines National Team in the 2023 World Cup. The competitions gave athletes the opportunity to represent their countries, earning high praise from their coaches and living out a once-in-a-lifetime experience.
From June 23-29, six Tiger Basketball players — senior Abdullah Roberts, senior Grayson Herr, junior Jacob Harvey, junior Braxton Barry, junior Jacob Millhouse and sophomore Christian Green — represented Team USA in the 2023 FIBA 3-on-3 Under-21 Nations League, an international competition between five international teams in the Asia-Pacific region.
After helping Team USA’s Women’s Basketball 3-on-3 team train in 2021, the Tigers and Coach Smith were chosen to represent the men’s side in China. The tournament was the first time that Team USA had been represented in 3-on-3 competition, as opposed to the traditional full-court 5-on-5 style of play.
“The biggest challenge was trying to get used to playing the three-on-three game,” Roberts, a forward and mathematics major, said. “In normal basketball we play five-on-five for the whole school year, but in this tournament it was different. The hardest transition was getting used to the different play styles and ways to play offense and defense and attack the game a bit.”
The different rules were not the only adjustments for the Tigers to handle, as they also had to adjust to new competition.
“You don’t know the other teams,” shooting guard Millhouse said. “In the [SCAC] conference, you pretty much know everyone. Then you go to China, and you don’t know anybody. You don’t know the other teams, so you have to learn how the other teams play in the middle of the game.”
In addition to Team USA’s debut on the 3-on-3 stage, first-year soccer player Malea Cesar represented the Philippines in both her and her country’s World Cup debut. Her trip to New Zealand represented the first time a Tiger has been on a World Cup roster — men’s or women’s — after she joined the team in August of 2021.
“One of the words I would use to describe it would be humbling,” Cesar said of the World Cup trip. “There were so many people we saw there that were there to support us. Sometimes we can get tunnel vision, and we have to take a step back and remember it’s more than just a game. It’s special to us because we can represent everybody in the Philippines and everybody all over the world.”
Along with the huge accomplishment of representing her team at the World Cup, Cesar earned experience she hopes to carry over to her life at Trinity.
“I carried the banner in the convocation, and I was so nervous about messing up,” Cesar said. “I had to say to myself, ‘OK, you’ve done things that are more nerve wracking than this.’ It helps to have experience to draw on where you can tell yourself ‘I can do this.’ I learned a lot about how to not only manage my time but also how to manage my energy and to keep a level head even though I can’t control a lot of things.”
Unfortunately, neither Cesar nor Team USA could make it out of their first stages of competition, but not without a strong effort. The Filipinas went 1-2 in the group, with their 1-0 victory over New Zealand highlighting the team’s World Cup debut. The men wrapped up six days of competition in third place, behind China and Japan but ahead of Mongolia and Chile. The team finished with an 11-6 record but missed out on advancing to the final due to their FIBA ranking of 25th.
“It was a dream come true,” Roberts said. “It was a once-in-a-lifetime experience. We got to grow our perspective and see a different culture and different way of life. In addition, the six of us got to gel as a team, which really brought up the team chemistry. To be able to do that while representing the country and representing Trinity was a blessing.”
