How George Santos Made Baruch Volleyball Famous

Most students commute; there are only about 300 dorm rooms available. And many, including athletes, work while going to school. There is no fraternity row.

“We like to utilize sport here as their outlet,” said Heather MacCulloch, the athletic director. “Two hours in the pool where I’m not figuring out calculus calculations, I don’t have to have my McDonald’s uniform on and my mom isn’t yelling at me for not taking out the trash. Those are hours of solace and rejuvenation.”

The men’s volleyball team looks like New York, too. There are players who grew up in Guyana, China, Serbia, Japan and Colorado, and freshmen twins from Albania. Other players were raised in Queens and Brooklyn.

Their first-year coach, Alexander Moule, a 26-year-old native of Rockaway Beach in Queens, is not much older than his players. His parents, Patricia and Simon Moule, were among the very few parents in the stands on Tuesday night. He “took no shortcuts to his American dream,” Simon Moule said.

When the team hit a lull during its fall practices, Mr. Moule told his team about a concept from Japanese business culture — kaizen, which means continual improvement. He asked Naoki Tani, a player from Tokyo who knew little English when he arrived three years ago, to speak to the team about it.

Article source: https://www.nytimes.com/2023/01/25/nyregion/santos-baruch-volleyball.html