Nikola Djordjevic
On the tennis court Nikola Djordjevic is a tall, 6�2 enforcer with a big serve and a sweet baseline shot, but off the court he is a humble man out to make some impact on the world, be it in the United States or in his homeland of Belgrade, Yugoslavia.
Djordjevic grew up in a war torn country. Yet even with his country in peril, Djordjevic always had tennis to fall back on; he began playing the game at age seven. �Me and my father were just on a trip and we saw some tennis courts,� he said. �I tried it and liked it. When I came back home my father sent me to a tennis school, Fifteen years later, I still really like it.�
Djordjevic came over to the United States last year as a freshman. �I am without my parents, so it is kind of hard but I learned how to deal with the situation,� he said. �I really liked the idea to come here because in New York and Long Island, [there are] good opportunities.�
Last spring was a breakthrough year for the rookie as he defeated three nationally ranked opponents, won his last 10 matches while going a surprising 21-2 and won the Colonial Athletic Association Rookie of the year.
Still, Djordjevic isn�t complacent about his successes. He feels the title challenges him to keep up his status in the league. �People try to find your weak spot, but that is better motivation for me to work hard and get better,� he said. �I think I am ready to handle it.�
Becky Thorn
Kathleen Mikowski and Melissa Hedrick might have been the big names of the women�s lacrosse team last spring, but behind them was the local freshman out of Sachem High School, Becky Thorn.
Now Mikowski, with her team high of 77 points, has graduated, as has second place Hedrick with her 44 points, leaving Thorn to bear the brunt of opposing teams� defenses come next spring�but that doesn�t scare the sophomore one bit. �My coach tells me every day in practice that I�m going to be double teamed on attack,� said Thorn. �I kind of like it.�
Lacrosse wasn�t always on Thorn�s mind. She played soccer most of her life and was preparing to run track in junior high when the school decided to form a women�s lacrosse team. In her freshman year in high school, when she made the varsity squad for lacrosse but junior varsity for soccer, her fate as a full-time lacrosse player was sealed.
Thorn got a taste of what defenses could do to her this season when the Pride lacrosse team played against Team USA in an exhibition this past fall. The Pride lost 22-3, but one of those goals was by Thorn. �When I get older I really want to be on that team,� she said, �so when I scored a goal in that game it just got me really excited.�
With still three years left to leave her mark on Hofstra, Thorn isn�t shy about her ambitions. �I would like to put some records in the books,� she said. The record for points in a career is 240 by Thorne�s former teammate, Mikowski. The 43 points earned her freshman season is a good start, leaving only 197 points to go.
Alex Maina
If there is one thing Kenya is known for in the sports world, it�s the impressive marathon runners the country produces. Alex Maina, of the Hofstra Pride Cross Country team, set the record for a Hofstra runner in his first race on the team. �Well, to say for sure, I was not aware that I did set the Hofstra record,� Maina said. �Only three days later when I asked Coach what the previous record was [did I find out I had].�
Maina began his life in Thika, Kenya. Following in the footsteps of many Kenyans, when he graduated from high school he immediately went to a track and cross-country camp at Jommo Kenyatta University of Agriculture. �People in Kenya are said to be physically fit,� he said. �They have good foods, they work hard manually and they walk long distances to the stores and markets carrying heavy loads on their backs so they are strong since they are very young.�
Maina worked hard at the University and soon had a chance to come to the United States and train at Central Methodist College. Although he and four other Kenyan runners objected to the training program there �because it was too cheap for us compared to what we were used to,� the coach made accommodations and Maina soon set his personal record of 25:43 in a five-mile race during a regional meet.
Maina, a junior, is preparing for the yearlong season and also for a future in television broadcasting. He is delighted with the facilities at the School of Communication. �In CMC they had no facilities apart from three old cameras and a miserable analog linear editing jog machine,� he said.
Hofstra must be thanking their lucky editing equipment for this amazing athlete.
Arni Gunnarrson
When sports fans think of �Iron Man,� they usually think of someone like Lou Gehrig or Cal Ripken. Hofstra University has its own cast of Iron Man contenders, though. One is Arni Gunnarsson, a senior who has run a streak of 41.5 hours on the soccer field. The Pride substituted 179 players from Oct. 28, 2001 to Sept. 21, 2003, but not one of them was Gunnarsson.
Gunnarsson, who has played soccer since the age of five, is a native of Kopavogur, Iceland. �Every kid my age back home played soccer,� he said. �At school there were maybe three guys who didn�t play soccer.�
The move to a new country brought changes for Gunnarsson. �Back home everything is more relaxed,� he said. �Everything is just a little package. You can get anywhere you need to go in ten minutes.� Gunnarsson said his transition to Long Island was aided by a plethora of foreigners on the Hofstra soccer team.
The future is bright for the senior who will graduate in December. A GPA of 3.9 in his major of engineering science gave Gunnarsson the team�s first Cosida/Verizon Academic All-American award.
Meaghan Almon
The Hofstra Softball team had many players on its roster in 2002 that stood out as mainstays at their positions. Shortstop Danielle Stewart, centerfielder Heather Brousseau, second baseman Jessica Luna and catcher Meaghan Almond are just a few of the reasons the Pride went to the NCAA Regional championship last season.
But 2002 is over and the new mainstay on the softball team is catcher Meaghan Almon, the only senior on the team who has played softball for four consecutive years. �I�ve always been an impact player on the team,� explained Almon. �This year is different though. I try to bring us together as a group and make sure that if anyone has any questions they can come to me.�
Almon started with tee ball as a child and played baseball until her senior year in high school. �The only reason I switched over [to softball] was because I had already signed with Hofstra to come and play here,� she said. �I thought for the best of the team here it would be to my advantage to play a year of softball.�
Hofstra Softball head coach Bill Edwards took a chance with the inexperienced Almon. �My freshman year he was the most patient man. He taught me the real game of softball,� Almon said. Almon had to adjust to different hitting styles, different pitches, and some new problems in fielding. �He wasn�t just telling me how to do things but explaining the game to me.�
Coach Edwards� risk paid off; while the pitching staff has changed constantly over the last two years, the player behind the plate has remained the same. Almon has played in all but one game since she arrived at Hofstra three years ago.
Playing all those games straight did take a toll. Almon played her entire freshman and sophomore year with three tears in her meniscus and a partial tear in the ACL. �The way I always see it is I�d rather be in the game because I am not a very good bench player,� she said.
Djordjevic won CAA Rookie of the year.