ECC Women's Basketball Insider Blog - The ECC's Austrian Connection

by: Stephen Zerdelian

Dowling’s sharp opening to the season (including their best start ever at 9-0, a first win over a nationally-ranked team and a first-ever national ranking) can be put down to a number of factors. Talent, chemistry and experience all play into their early season success. The Golden Lions don’t rely on any single individual to get the job done; rather it’s a team effort with the onus shared amongst a variety of players, not all of which arrived in Oakdale via the traditional route. Two of the more intriguing players on the Dowling roster hail from a country that doesn’t generally set the basketball pulse racing - Austria. Don’t be fooled; Austria has a small but bustling basketball community. A number of Austrian women play at US colleges, and the productive and poised work of 6-2 senior Sarah Schicher and 6-1 sophomore Julia Koppl has been nothing short of pivotal to Dowling’s strong start.

Schicher transferred to Dowling after playing her first year at Southern Connecticut State University. A native of Vienna, Schicher’s game is based in the paint, where she is a solid rebounder and excellent defensive deterrent. Koppl took the ECC by storm last season, garnering Rookie of the Year honors while showcasing a versatile all-around game. She is from Innsbruck, a well-known winter sports area, but her best athletic work has come inside a gym as opposed to out in the elements. Both began playing the sport in their pre-teen years.

"Basketball is not a very popular sport in Austria, not a lot of youth opportunities exist,” said Schicher (pronounced Shee-sher). “The sport is considered a hobby as opposed to a competitive activity, especially for females. Both my grandparents and parents played basketball, so my dad had me on the court with the boys when I was six or seven.”

"I started to play competitively when I entered middle school (5th grade) in Innsbruck” offered Koppl (pronounced Cope-ul). “My dad played and was my inspiration to start in the game.”

The somewhat limited Austrian scene pitched these two into the same environments at an early age, and they’ve combined on various national teams over the years, as well.

“Julia and I are both members of the Austrian National Team,” mentions Schicher, who was a part of two youth national title teams in Austria, the U18 and U20 squads at Bundesgymnasium Wien (Vienna) 9. “I started when I was 14, the same year the team was formed. They formed it as an attempt to push Austrian basketball and play international competition and the sport continues to grow."

"We met in 2006 and have played competitively together since. We play together every summer in the European Championship,” said Koppl, a previous member of U16, U18 and U20 Austrian national units.

Milena Lazarevic, a 5-11 sophomore forward for the University of Bridgeport, had a similar start in the game and is also part of the Austrian team’s national set-up.

“I started playing basketball when I was 12,” says Lazarevic. “I grew up in a small town where basketball was really popular, which is not very common in Austria. Usually everybody is just fanatical about soccer. The first year, basketball was just a hobby for me. After that I realized that I really started to love the game and became passionate about it, started taking the game seriously. I was not the best player on the team. Actually, I was the youngest one there, everybody was three or four years older than me, but I loved it. I was always hungry to learn from others and to grow as a person and as a player and eventually, after nine months I made it to my first try-out for the Austrian U14 National Team. I’ve been on the Austrian National Team every year since then, including the last two years as the captain of the U20 National Team.”

Lazarevic is more than familiar with the Dowling duo, noting “I’ve known Sarah and Julia for about six years now and have played with them for the Austrian National Team. I actually played with Julia this summer in Macedonia. They are really close friends of mine and it is always a pleasure to play with and especially against them.”

All three recognize that the game in America is different from the European version of basketball.

"Basketball in the States is more physical and the tempo of the American game is a little faster,” cites Schicher.
 
Koppl has a similar take, stating "We don't see much of the fast break offense in Europe, more plays come from the sideline and our coaches.”

Lazarevic mentions that “International play is much quicker but at the same time so slow. In Austria, we usually walk the ball up the court and set up a play and don´t really stress too much about the time, even though we only have 24 seconds for an offense.” Other aspects of the differing styles of play are not quite as obvious; as she said “I think I have taken two charges my entire basketball career in Austria. I had never been taught to take a charge, because they do not call charges that often (in Austria), another difference to American college basketball.”

All three took somewhat circuitous routes to America, not an abnormal thing for international players. Lazarevic and Schicher began their college careers at Southern Connecticut State University and their trail-blazing set the path for Koppl.

"An American coach in Austria (Chris O'Shea) was friendly with the Southern Connecticut coach (Meghan Brown) and connected me with her. After a year there, I decided Dowling was a better fit for me academically so I made to move to Long Island," said Schicher.

Koppl’s tale is not dissimilar. "I went to a showcase in Germany and coach (Joe) Pellicane saw my video from the tournament. I reached out to Sarah and she convinced me to come and try and win a national championship. My aunt and I also did some research and Dowling was a good fit for me academically,” mentions Koppl.

Dowling head coach Joe Pellicane confirms the track that led his two players to Oakdale, New York.

"With Sarah, we received a transfer request from Southern Connecticut and I contacted head coach Brown and looked at video on Sarah,” said the veteran mentor. “In my history (at Dowling), we haven't taken a lot of transfer student-athletes but we really liked Sarah. She has been terrific both on and off the court. She has a high GPA and will graduate in May on time. In Julia’s case, I got a chance to watch her online in a German tournament and I liked her very much. When I found out she was from Austria, I contacted Sarah and had her and her mom come out to visit and they fell in love with Dowling College."
 
Lazarevic falls in line with the others, noting “Meghan Brown was an assistant coach at Yale five years ago when Yale traveled around Europe and came to Austria for a friendship game where I was supposed to play. At the last minute I had to cancel in order to travel with the Austrian National Team and didn’t play. (Verena Lehner, who went on to play for Yale, stepped in for me to compete in this game). I stayed in contact with coach Brown and when I decided to come and play in the United States after my graduation I contacted her and she offered me a scholarship to SCSU. I had to red-shirt my first year at Southern and played my second year there. After my second year I decided to change schools and was really interested in Bridgeport. I had been to UB a couple of times to watch my friend play and saw UB´s style of basketball and could see myself playing there.”

Being away from home can be difficult but all three players find the little touches that keep them grounded and feeling comfortable in another country. Having others from the same country (or at least from outside of the US) helps. Being teammates at Dowling, Koppl and Schicher have the chance to blend both on and off-court pursuits.

"It's nice because we have chemistry on the court and we get along great off the court. It's also refreshing to have someone to speak German with,” said Koppl.
 
"We are very familiar with each other’s games and I think that translates well on the court. Plus, Julia also is a terrific cook and makes great Austrian food which helps remind me of home!" notes Schicher.

“I love to play on this team and really appreciate that I am not the only international player here, it’s really amazing,” said Lazarevic, who has UB teammates from England and Israel as well as from six different states. “People can relate to me and actually know how it feels to be so far away from home. For us (international players), the basketball team is not only a team, it’s our family. I am really happy and proud to be part of this family; they are what keep me going.”

The future is approaching soon for Schicher, and in a few years for the Koppl and Lazarevic, but all are considering basketball as a part of their post-graduation plans.

"Playing professionally has always been a dream for me. Hopefully an opportunity exists after the season for me to play in Europe," said Schicher.
 
"Right now I am concentrated on my studies and would love the opportunity to continue my education (to eventually get a masters) while playing somewhere," mentions Koppl.

“I would love to play in Germany, Italy, France or Spain,” said Lazarevic. “I would love to play in the AWBL (Austrian Women’s Professional League) as well but their financial situation is not that good at this point. But who knows, it might change in the next three years before I finish my college career.”

Given the ability all three posses and the dedication they’ve shown in traveling halfway around the world to play the game they love while getting a quality education, odds are they will be able to follow up on their goals and play professionally. In the meantime, the ECC is much the better for having the trio among their respective teams.

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Clearly, international players have been, and will continue to be, critical elements of ECC teams. The distribution changes from year-to-year, but this season the league has players from seven countries as well as seventeen different states. Naturally, with seven of the nine conference teams based in New York, the Empire State has the largest number of players but you might be surprised to see how far afield ECC teams draw from. The full breakdown:

States (number of players listed on official rosters at the start of the season):
New York – 57
New Jersey – 9
Connecticut – 7
Virginia – 6
Maryland – 5
Pennsylvania – 4
California – 3
District of Columbia, Indiana – 2
Alabama, Arizona, Colorado, Delaware, Massachusetts, North Carolina, Texas, Vermont – 1

Countries (number of players listed on official rosters at the start of the season):
Austria – 4
Serbia – 2
Bahamas, Canada, England, Israel, Portugal – 1