Harvard Visits SNU for a Soccer Match

The 'Harvard Football Club'. For Koreans, the words Harvard and football sound out of tune with each other, for it's a given everybody believes students at SNU, the most prestigious school in Korea, don't do sports much. Thus, the Harvard Football Club's off-season training in Korea, playing against Korea University, Seoul National University, and the national youth soccer team all in a span of two weeks, perhaps due to Korea's ridiculous fantasy towards Ivy Leagues, has attracted much media attention and broadcasting with headlines that can be narrowed down to these four words -"Nerds can sport too."

Carl Junot, one of the three coaches of the team who is now into his third year of coaching Harvard, explained,"This trip is about the development of our team - to grow as a team, and stay healthy during the off-season. In America there's a lot of tough style footballing, but in Korea, where there isn't, the team has to make adjustments to a new style of playing. This is good for the team."

Harvard allows the team to go abroad for an away match only once every four years. Therefore every player is given one chance to play abroad. Four years ago the team visited Brazil.

Harvard's visit to Korea was the fruit of the considerable effort of two people: KIM Ho-Kyung, the CEO of Harvard Project Korea, who previously studied in Michigan, and Casey J. Lartigue Jr., the Director of Harvard International Relations, who graduated from Harvard and was previously a reporter for the Harvard Crimson Student News' sports column. For five months they worked together to make this friendly match possible, with Mr. Kim working with sponsors and Mr. Lartigue working on all the necessary paperwork. When the event almost got cancelled due to a lack of funds, the team members willingly took on the rest of the travelling cost at their own expense.

What Koreans will learn from this event is that you need not jeopardize your grades to be an elite sportsperson, nor resort to being book worms to"go to Harvard." Coach Junot emphasized that each team member"needs to maintain a minimum GPA to play. That is not a problem. because how they approach their studies helps their approach towards football, and vice versa."

The team captain, Tim Linden, a becoming senior majoring in Latin American studies, on being asked whether or not soccer gets in the way of his studies, answered,"In-season we practice two to three hours six days a week, so you need to be more productive the rest of the day. Being productive helps me study because I find myself procrastinating and looking for other things to do when I have a lot of time on my own."

The eldest player on the team, Alex Chi ('10, Economics), received much attention due to his Korean heritage. Ajummahs - Korean hockey moms - wanting to send their sons to Harvard, surrounded Alex after the game, asking him for advice on what they should do with their children who don't have any interest in studying and only want to play soccer. They were seen repeatedly telling their children to"Just be like hyung-a", which means they want Alex to be their sons' role model.

Alex Chi also commented that he advised the kids"to keep a good balance." He explained further by sharing his experience from a soccer boarding school in Korea seven years ago when he was still in high school. Remembering the confusion he felt then, he said that"[at the soccer boarding school] I saw that those who play soccer didn't do much studying."

On their team there is even one member, Richard Smith, who tried out for the Premier League at the age of 18. Though he has received offers from Aston Villa and West Ham, he declined for he did not want to give up his studies. This seems quite remarkable to Koreans, as athletic skills had nothing to do with Richard getting accepted into Harvard. Many team members, even with their practice commitments, are on scholarships despite the fact Harvard does not offer scholarships for athletes; these are given based on their high grades and financial need.

Coach Junot labeled SNU's soccer team as"high standard", and that he"liked the style of play" that he had seen. Though the final score was 0 to 1 in Harvard's favor, SNU put up a good fight against a team of all players bigger than them to the last five minutes, when the only goal of the match was scored. Professor LEE Seok-Hoon of the Department of Physical Education at SNU commented that,"Students on the Korea University soccer team are elite players, who've trained since a young age. The fact that they lost to Harvard shows sports without academics is an empty shell." Indeed, the fact that that team of Korean athletes who do not usually study at all still lost to an amateur football club has come to arouse similar opinions to that of Professor Lee.

The Harvard soccer team's stay in Korea will be for two weeks. The match held at SNU was their second game, the first one being a 2:1 victory over Korea University. On Monday they will be playing against Korea's national youth soccer team. The Harvard soccer team plays in the Ivy League competition and the NCAA during the season from late August to November, and in the off-season plays friendly games with other universities while keeping in shape. The SNU soccer team plays the national U-League against universities all over Korea and many other nationwide competitions throughout the year.

Written by LEE BoYoung, SNU English Editor, bylee0708@gmail.com   ?  
Reviewed by Eli Park Sorensen, SNU Professor of Liberal Studies
Proofread by Brett Johnson, SNU English Editor