Norstrom Enjoys Successful Transition From Sweden
6/2/2011 12:00:00 AM | Men's Tennis
By George Robles
Freelance Writer
Freelance Writer
International students make up an important part of the Saint Mary's College community as they bring a fresh new perspective to college life. Look no further than the Gaels men's tennis team and one will find a variety of foreign flavor with seven athletes born outside the United States. The youngest of the bunch, Joakim Norstrom found himself as the lone freshman on an experienced tennis team that was looking to add young talent.
The Stockholm, Sweden native made the journey to Moraga after having a stellar tennis career in Sweden. Making the transition from living in one country to another is usually that toughest part for a person, let alone a young college student who has never been outside of his comfort zone of being 5,000 plus miles away from family and friends. Yet, Norstrom found that having other international players on the tennis team made it easier to adapt to American life as he explains, "I definitely feel that it was a positive for me to have many other international players on our team. Somehow it was comforting to know that most of the guys had been through exactly what I went through, coming to the U.S. from a very different part of the world, and I felt that they were able to support me through that."
He began playing tennis at the age of five years old after watching his older brother play and quickly found success. One of his biggest accomplishments, winning the Swedish Championships twice in singles and an astonishing five times in doubles. In 2009, Norstrom also won a title in the Swedish Elite League, something that he highly values in his young tennis career.
During high school in Sweden, Joakim started to think about one day playing collegiate tennis in the United States and began to put highlight videos online in hopes to catch the attention of recruiters and coaches. It is difficult to attract U.S. college coaches being so far away because they never get to see the players compete in person before recruiting them. Saint Mary's head coach Michael Wayman came across one of his videos and contacted Norstrom showing interest. He had a few college options, but ultimately chose Saint Mary's College for its academics and he felt it was a good place that could help him develop his game even further.
In his first season as a Gael, Joakim exceeded all expectations as freshman are usually timid about playing a big role on a team. With his six-foot-five frame, he is not only the youngest on the team, but also the tallest. He describes his first year as, "quite successful, personally I feel like I did alright, there were some matches I lost that I'd like to have back, but for my first year I'll have to be satisfied. It's a very different atmosphere playing college tennis than what I'm used to back home, and I really feel that having a first season under my belt will help me a lot next year."
He finished his first season with a 15-9 singles record for the Gaels, which was tied for first on the team for wins. Norstrom won five matches against players from ranked teams which included beating Brendan Ruddock at the five spot from No. 16 University of Minnesota. In doubles he was primarily paired with teammate Steven Dawson-Roberts, where they would start off the season winning their first five matches before ending the year with an 11-11 record. In West Coast Conference play he compiled a 6-2 record in singles and went 2-1 in the WCC tournament in doubles play.
The soon to be sophomore has high expectations for next year as he said, "We started of slow with a couple of bad losses, but were able to find our games and compete with and even beat some really good teams. I definitely feel that with a bit of luck we could have done even better, but finishing our season ranked No. 61 was great, and I think we will be even more dangerous next season."
Norstrom also was a big part in the victory over rival No. 47 Santa Clara, a team that the Gaels had not beaten since 2009, where Saint Mary's would win five out of six singles matches for the win. He considered this to be one of the many highlights in his freshman season for the Gaels.
With three seniors graduating this year Joakim will play an even bigger role for the team next year as they hope to compete even further for a WCC title. As a tennis player he hopes to one day represent Saint Mary's College in the NCAA Tournament as an individual and as a team before his four years are over. For now, this Swedish native will continue to strive towards success on and off the court despite being half a world away from home.
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