Eckerd's women's basketball team turns international recruiting into success

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. - When Paul Honsinger took over 17 years ago, the Eckerd College women's basketball team looked very different. 

"We had a lot to build. As a program, too, we had a lot to build then," said Honsinger. 

For starters, the young coach found it difficult recruiting players to his St. Petersburg campus. He said they were competing against their own league for players in-state and throughout the US, but Honsinger came up with a plan. 

If he wasn't getting the best from around the state or the country, he would get the best from around the world. 

"I realized this is a pocket we can really dip into," Honsinger said. 

After recruiting a couple of international basketball players, Honsinger and his assistant coaches began to make contacts and plant recruiting roots overseas. 

The result is that of the 10 players on Eckerd's roster, eight are from outside the United States. 

"Eighty percent is pretty high," said Honsinger. "It's not intentional, entirely, but it's definitely working right now, and I'm not going to fix anything that's not broken."  

Spanning the globe, Honsinger and his associate head coach Ashton Feldhaus have built something that resembles the United Nations in their gym. 

Currently, the Tritons are represented by basketball players from eight different countries, including the US. Their star center, and reigning conference player of the year, Maya Price made the trip from England but finds it comforting that her teammates share similar experiences playing so far from home. 

"It does have that sense of hominess and some familiarity compared to just going somewhere that is an all-American team," said Price. 

Meanwhile, each member of the Tritons has taken those shared experiences and turned them into wins. 

"We have this connection, all together," said junior point guard Lauryn Vieira of France. "We have just grown up and improved." 

Currently, Eckerd is ranked in the top 10 nationally and are looking to make their seventh NCAA Tournament appearance in the last eight years. 

"It's the best of times right now," said Honsinger. "I'm happy that it's gotten to where it's gotten to, now, put it that way." 

So while you may hear different dialects and accents, the Tritons only truly speak one language – the language of basketball.