 Global Connections. I'm your host Grace Chang and I'm joined here today by Vince Valdemore, the Executive Director of Athletics at Hawaii Pacific University. And Vince is here to talk with us today about college athletics and its global reach. Hi Vince, welcome to the program. Grace, thanks for having me. Thank you for coming on here. Glad to be here. Well it's a really interesting topic to talk about today and you've been the Executive Director at HPU since 2013. So interesting job in position and overseeing the athletics program. It's a full-time job, that's for sure. There's a lot to do there. Good. Could you tell us a little bit about your background, how you got into this field? Sure. So I've been in Hawaii since 2003. I was born and raised in Philadelphia and Midwest boy went to school at DePaul University in Notre Dame and bounced around from jobs to jobs in sports. So I pretty much had about 20 years in sports in the sports world both in professional and now in college. But in 2003, the University of Hawaii had a job opening for a fundraiser and they believed what I was saying at the time and hired me. I was there for about 11 years and it was a great experience at University of Hawaii. But then in 2014 we Dr. Bannister at the time was looking for an athletic director here at HPU and it was good timing. It was a great opportunity for me and I'm lucky I got it and I've been here since. Okay, excellent. Yeah. So tell us a bit about the athletics program at HPU and then we'll talk a bit more about you know college athletics and then the you know the kind of internationalization of the student athlete population. Sure, definitely. You know HPU is really unique. I mean not only just it's an urban campus but our makeup of international students for athletics programs you know facilities are always important and being in downtown Honolulu it's a little bit of a creative challenge of always trying to find places for our student athletes to practice and they'll compete. So you know that that makes it you know a little bit more of a special type of student athlete to come to HPU. In terms of our makeup we have about 250 or so student athletes in athletics. About 55% of those are from the mainland and we have about 20% or so from international and then the remaining was that equal 25% are local kids. So we have a nice balance of mainland local international and it makes for a great experience if you're a student on a soccer or volleyball or a basketball team you are experiencing the world with a lot of different kids from all over the place. Yeah so extending your education international exposure while you're on the team through your teammates. I went to school at the Paul University and played tennis and it was in Chicago and I mean it was a great experience. I loved Chicago. I loved the Paul but it was a kind of a different makeup right. I mean when I compare what I saw in college versus what I see now at HPU it's completely opposite with this international influx of student athletes with just the urban center with everything that's happening. So it's pretty exciting. I'm you know I wish I could you know go back in time. Yeah I mean it seems like you know when probably when you and I are growing up right there weren't as many international athletes in the pro ranks or in college. I mean is this kind of a new development over the last I don't know how long to have international student athletes join the NCAA and you know I think it's been around and I think you're right there there has been a little bit more of a big boom of that. I know that you know there's always some that are coming to the U.S. for you know competition or for academics or whatever it is but you know I started to notice it more now just because in Hawaii you really pay attention to all the different cultures that are here and I just really started to notice that wow it's it's it's a trend that's continuing to grow and the fact that it's Hawaii I mean you know it's a destination university right. People love to just be in Hawaii so it also adds to that. The climate for sports. Yeah it's pretty good for that. Yeah yeah so we're not ever you know we're not ever trapped just indoors lots of. I played tennis in the snow so. Yeah Chicago you're tough. Yeah right. And I mean NCAA is kind of unique as far as you know the U.S. collegiate approach to athletics because in a lot of other countries there isn't this kind of organized collegiate athletic organization that's that you know NCAA represents. Yeah I mean you're right. It is. I mean the NCAA is a lot of regulations. There's a lot of policies. I mean it's really it's a big business right. I mean you have probably maybe a thousand eleven hundred schools that are part of the NCAA. You have division one division two division three and there are make-ups within those divisions but it's it's really trying to promote you know membership among the schools and healthy competition and fairness so that's why you have you know gender equity and title nine concerns and so all of that plays into fielding and managing and promoting and you know growing an athletics program and that's what creates a lot of the gray hairs and bags under the eyes of the lack of sleep but we like it. I'm here not noticeable. Good lighting but you do have a lot of programs. I mean the athletics program at HVU has grown. There have been several programs added right in the last few years. Yeah I mean we were at 14 now so 14 programs with 250 student athletes you know and that's a healthy balance for us. You know we recently maybe four or five years ago added a sport which was acrobatics and tumbling. It had never existed before so that was a sport that nobody knew about but it it became a sport through a number of individuals and organizations. HPU jumped in and said this is a sport that makes sense for us and we have twenty five to thirty young women that compete in acrobatics and tumbling in the nation and we've probably finished three the past three four years so we're pretty excited about that. Oh excellent yeah yeah and as far as like the gender equity kind of clause of the the NCAA that means that we have equal representation of men and women how does that specifically work out. Yeah you're touching on it part of it has to do with our relationship to our to the university as whole. So for our university population and I don't know exactly what the number is if we have 55 percent women and 45 percent men then our athletics program should reflect that. Okay we should have 55 percent women participating in sports and then 45 percent in men's sports. For us we have six men's sports of the 14 and then eight women's sports so for our numbers it comes out to it's very similar very close to what the university numbers look like. And you were saying earlier you know like HPU and and probably Hawaii institutions as a whole it's attractive because it's in Hawaii but I mean there's also the distance for traveling for student athletes is that a challenge. It is it is I mean that's you know it's a it's a plus and a minus depending on you how you look at it I mean our student athletes they love to travel so then it's a plus. They get to go all around the country to compete and represent the university. For the old guys like me maybe you know you get tired on a five-hour flight or whatever it is sometimes you know it just kind of wears you down but overall it's what we do it's it's how we compete. There are four university five universities in Hawaii four of them that you know are in our division so we we have a healthy rivalry with the Hawaii schools. Okay and good physical conditioning I guess. The thing is I mean this is new but in the past they didn't have I guess frequent flyer miles and all of that right at least I don't remember that they used to have it but now kids are getting to keep their frequent flyer miles and whenever they travel they're banking those miles and those are going to turn into something down the road especially when you live in Hawaii and you have to go to California two three times every year that's you know that's nice right bring mom bring mom and dad to Hawaii then on your on your miles. Yeah that's a nice perk yeah yeah yeah and how does athletics help benefit the students particularly the student athletes and the University of the whole. I've always felt that you know athletics is is an integral part of the university you know and it does a number of things I think that you know the main one that we not normally see on television and in sports games the school spirit really brings pride to be in a part of the university when your teams are out there competing and winning and representing you. I also think that it adds you know some advertising right so for a university that's out there that you know that's focused on enrollment and wants a healthy enrollment base you know student athletes and athletic programs are out in the news and and they're in the paper and the TV and radios and that helps drive enrollment for the university. You know there's some revenue you know sometimes you're selling tickets you're selling parking you're selling you're making money as a result of athletic programs you're selling shirts and things so that's revenue for the for the athletics program in the university and then I think the other one is that you know it's this diversity side you know athletics brings a unique set of individuals to a school right if if it's basketball you're seeing a lot of tall people or volleyball gals you're seeing a lot of tall and you know so you get this diversity not only in in ethnicity but it's also in in culture and lifestyle I mean they've been in sports for many of their years so you add that to the university and it really helps. Yeah and and you know it seems like also it provides because it is tied to some scholarship money it provides the opportunities for some students who might not otherwise go to university. Yes that's a great one that's a great one right there alone I mean you know it's college is expensive and you know financial financial help and scholarships are a big driver. Yeah and it seems that yeah a lot of you know there's they're it's an amateur you know we have an amateur orientation in the NCAA but you know it's still it's something that they're committed to that they need to structure their you know their schedules and their lives around. It's a full I mean for our student athletes they have to juggle school they have to juggle practice they have to juggle competition they have to juggle travel they have to juggle social life right damn we want them to go out and do things they have to juggle community service because it's important that our student athletes are out there helping the community so they have a lot in the course of a day and over the course of a semester so yeah we're proud of the kids that we have at HPU because they can balance it all. Good training for success in the after graduation life. Yeah the kids right now they're very impressive right and it helps because at the end of the day we're developing them and getting them ready for after they graduate. Yeah so that's some interesting yeah interesting points so when we come back from the break we'll talk a little bit more about yeah some of the student successes after graduation. Fantastic. Okay thanks Ben so stay tuned we'll be back in just one minute back to global connections. Hi and thanks for watching Think Tech Hawaii my name is Justine Espiritu and I host the Hawaii Food and Farmer series with my co-host Matthew Johnson of Iwahu Fresh. Every week we bring on farmers as well as all the other individuals and organizations that help support a thriving sustainable food system. In fact it's interesting to learn what others are doing so you don't have to be a Hawaii resident or producing food on Hawaii to be featured on the show like today's guest Wyatt Bryson of Jewels of the Forest and Michael Lab Solutions. Aloha thank you it's been a pleasure being on the show I love seeing what you guys do and I really support your mission and it's really nice being back in Hawaii and thank you again it's an honor. So you can see guests like Wyatt every Thursday at 4 p.m. on Think Tech Hawaii thank you. Welcome back to global connections I'm your host Grace Chang and I'm joined here today by Vince Baltimore the athletic director at Hawaii Pacific University and we're talking about college athletics and its global reach so welcome back Vince. Thanks good to be here. Great and we were talking about how much college athletics can contribute to a student's success after graduation. Yeah how are students doing do you know like keeping track of students what they do as far as athletic or professional after they graduate. You know in school we try to do as much as we can to help and support them because it is it's a difficult time I mean you're a young person from 18 years old on up you might this might be the first time you're away from home might be the first time you have a bank account I mean so there's a lot of change and in addition to it they have all the responsibilities that we talked about earlier of practice and community service and so it is kind of overwhelming but I think our athletics department and most athletics departments are there to support and really kind of nurture the student athletes so that they are some of it they have to do on their own right they have to pay their own bills they have to figure out a budget on what to eat and what not to eat right some of those things. But at the end of the day I think you know we do a good job of really being there and not enabling them but just kind of always being there ready to help. Academically you know they have to go to class they have to they have to take their tests I mean you know that's a part of growing up as part of the college experience. Yeah I mean you know and there is there have been like historically not too recently but historically like with some cases right where where maybe there has been some dissatisfaction with student performance in some universities and on the mainland some kind of well publicized one but yeah it seems that most programs if you have the proper support is a good you know kind of a good format for for getting students prepared for you know independent adult life in this transition. I think so and I think the the advantage that HPU has is that not only will you be prepared for life but you're going to be prepared for the world. You are we are in a global society in downtown Honolulu. You know some of the kids that we've seen have come over from the mainland they've never met somebody from France, Spain, Germany, Australia. They've never now they're living with them they're going to school with them they're practicing with them they're understanding so this really kind of broadens their perspective and really makes it stronger for them. And we have students from student athletes from Japan as well and and where else it seems like a good representation. I did a search the other day we probably have 18 to 20 countries represented in athletics. I think our largest large student athlete population groups are from Australia, Spain and Germany but we go through to Japan and Taiwan we had Kenya we have I mean just it's all around the globe but I mean the Sweden I can't I there's so many different countries there's at least there's 20 of them and it's neat because when we have a staff coaches meeting and we get everybody together I mean you don't know what languages speak yeah that's good they can bone up on yeah their language classes at home. We did a video we try and do a video for HPU athletics and it's on our website that it's kind of a Christmas video right you know Merry Christmas everybody so we had a bunch of students and they all said Merry Christmas happy holidays in their language okay and it ran two to three minutes long because you have a lot of different languages represented interesting and how about recruiting the international recruiting how what are some challenges and what are some you know interesting insights from that process you know there's recruiting is always about access and money right I mean if you can go to that country and meet with the parents and build a relationship and you know there are many schools that can can invest in that ours is a little bit different strategy I mean we're a little bit more I guess efficient in how we we recruit our coaches are mostly word of mouth it's you know internet if it's phone calls if it's emails those kind of things but also because HPU has a reputation for international visibility the name goes a long way so when a coach from you know HPU says he's in Germany I mean kids know the the university so it also helps it's it's a little bit of a team effort you need you need a lot of people involved to make it to make it work but I mean it's it really it's a part of what we do it seems you know over the years if you're in downtown Honolulu right and you can hear HPU students speaking all different languages but there seems to be you know the representation from different languages changes right in the past and especially in the athletics I recall you know there were many students from former Yugoslavia background Brazilian background but that you know yeah the representation kind of shifts around over time is the market you know like as far as you know the looking at different countries and and you know are there certain countries that provide maybe more athletes and certain certain types of sports and so forth there are I mean some sports some countries have more more focus on some sports than others I think for us you know our it it starts with a coach right and if the coach has connections in Brazil there he or she is gonna work in Brazil and work on student athletes from that country it's about relationships at the end of the day you know I think when when parents are entrusting their kids to come to Hawaii and they're far away it's all about do I trust the coach and they take care of me is the school gonna take care of my son those types of relationships so I think for us you know our coaches are really our coaching staff is pretty diverse as well I mean we have a number of them that graduated with multiple degrees from HPU if it's their undergrad and their their graduate degree but it's it's an international makeup of you know all different countries as well so that helps they can always call home yeah sounds like kind of an intimate network right the people homegrown in the university and then reaching out to the network they have personally it is around the world it is I mean there's you know when when coaches are recruiting there is no end to the emails that they're getting you know for our university we're visible so you know an 18 year old in any state in the US versus any country overseas will look at HPU and say I think I can play volleyball or baseball or basketball there so you have this email this community this communication back and forth and you know it's it's just about the right timing the right the right coach and you know the right partnership mm-hmm so what I mean you know we talked about Hawaii having Hawaii's appeal but as far as international athletes you know what appeals to them about the NCAA system in particular because they could play at home you know and get paid for it right in government sponsored or club or other you know what what makes the NCAA system kind of that's a great question I I I think part of it has to do and in this I only speak from what I've seen at HPU mm-hmm every situation is different across for every student and every university but the students that we bring to HPU are adventurous they love they love the fact that Hawaii is 2,500 miles minimum from anywhere else they love the natural beauty they love to be able to go on hikes they love to travel they did a little bit more mature they may not be 18 years old they may be a little bit older and they're talented they're academically and athletically capable so I think that that's what we've seen that's the kind of student-athletes that we recruit because you have to be a little bit mature to live on an island in the middle of the Pacific and manage all these things so that's that's what our coaches go after mm-hmm and and 20% of the HPU athletes are international and so does that pose any challenges as far as you know within the teams within the program or what are some of the advantages as well and benefits it is a little bit of a challenge because you are you know every team is a family mm-hmm right and every family you have different dynamics and you have you know I mean you sometimes have clicks among bigger teams but I mean that's that's a part of what the coach's job is to create at the end of the day at the end of the day a family that's going to go out and compete against other schools and I think that's the plus side because it makes it you know exciting when all of a sudden you have all these different cultures together that may not communicate in the same language but they're out there winning mm-hmm yeah and they might have done things different ways but I'm assuming in many sports like the training the everyday practices are sort of similar have you encountered you know different different kinds of practices some of them are yeah right I mean you know the most of the sports are pretty they've been around for a long time right there's been tennis for years and basketball for years and everybody takes best practices of how best to train and how best to eat and how best to mental toughness and all of those and they share it from you know from era to era mm-hmm I think that you know for us that's what everybody does right and it makes it you know it makes it fun it makes it challenging but it you know also makes it a little stressful at the same time yeah it sounds really interesting to have such yeah such a diversity in in I mean and these are people you see you know in the classroom you always have different people coming in and out every semester but when you're on a team it's it's much more kind of sustained contact with a group of people it really is kind of like a family or a very close-knit community after a while mm-hmm very much so and so what's happening these days with HPU athletics that that might be of interest to well we're in the spring season so this is February and men's and women's basketball are doing great a great job out there the representing us very well men's I think is in the top five in the country mm-hmm women are competing hard baseball and softball has started our national champion men's tennis team starts the season now to defend their title they won a national championship last year so and what golf is out there so the spring sports are in full force they're out there on the fields and in the courts practicing and also going to your class and all the other classes that they they go to so it's a busy spring for us mm-hmm and do we ever have teams go internationally for you know for exhibition or you know like the NFL goes to England yeah no great I mean we we just did last year in June end of June early July our basketball team was invited to compete in an international basketball tournament in Seoul Korea oh wow mm-hmm an amazing experience and it was it was great to watch because we had some boys that were from Ohio that had never been out of the country wow to see them eat kimchi was pretty funny they didn't know what it was they just you know this is a growing experience for them we took them around and there's educational cultural opportunities that they really got to see a foreign country at the end of the day that was you know they'll always remember that but you know they also competed and you know our team under coach V and the coaching staff they won the tournament mm-hmm so we brought back a trophy from Korea and boys they're very proud of them they're in Hawaii never had kimchi what do you guys feed them right so they never even this is like their first trip so yeah yeah so they're yeah their diets here get to yeah they get to try a whole range of all these people that's exactly all over the world there yeah well really that's really fascinating yeah so the international recruitment really provides kind of an interesting dimension to the athletics program HPU and yeah and helps contribute to the university's diverse student population very very unique aspect I think of the whole I Pacific program yeah we're proud to be a part of HPU great well thank you so much for coming on the program Vince thank you Grace this is great I hope I didn't screw up for you this was great fun I loved it it was really fun talking to you yeah I always feels like you know we never have enough time like 500 questions in my head but okay save it for next time we'll do all right thank you so much Vince thank you okay thank you all for tuning in to Global Connections I'm your host Grace Chang and I've just finished talking with Vince Baltimore athletics director of Hawaii Pacific University see you next time Thursdays at 1 p.m. Aloha