Athletes vs the World

Is the perfect example of resiliency .

This page portrays how athletes from different ways of life and countries get to accomplish their dreams . I’ve been blessed to witness his rise to success since Cameroon, and as a teammate in HS.

He’s a perfect example of an ! Through injuries, setbacks, and doubt… he kept showing the world exactly who he is — dominant, relentless, and built different. To me, he’s already among the greats.

He’s a great reminder to keep chasing your goals , and keep fighting through adversities ! I’m extremely proud to call him a friend !🤞🏿💯

Cairo Santos was born in Limeira, in the state of Sao Paulo, Brazil. He originally played soccer and was unaware of the American Football game until he moved to St. Augustine, Florida as a foreign exchange student at the age of 15. He planned to stay in the United States for one year only but he found a love for field goal kicking and was pretty good at it because his soccer skills transferred marvelously. He decided to remain in Florida because he had a big opportunity to receive a college scholarship for his kicking ability. Later on, he committed to Tulane . His freshman year he was named to the Conference USA All-Freshman Team and was Honorable-mention all C-USA. In 2012, he went crazy as he was named consensus All-American and received the Lou Groza Award for the nation’s most outstanding placekicker. He currently plays for the Chicago Bears and is playing great for them!

Cole Ketrzynski is from Toronto, Canada. He has two brothers that play volleyball at a high level as well. His dad was also very good at Volleyball as he helped the country to achieve fourth place at the 1984 Olympic Games.
Cole is one of the best attackers in his league. Last year, he was ranked amongst the top attackers in kills per set (3.98) , points per set (4.78), and hitting percentage (.345) last season. He plays for UCLA, the prestigious team in California and they are getting ready to play a very good Pepperdine on May 3. This is a very important game since it will be a part of the NCAA PostSeason Tournament. Good luck to him and the Bruins as they will try to win the whole thing!
Cole Ketrzynski was a member of the Indoor Canadian's U21 team in 2021. 🇨🇦

***Joel Embiid is the first international player to win the scoring title and the first center to do so in more than two decades. *** Joel started playing basketball at the age of 16 in Yaoundé, Cameroon. From a Junior Varsity player in Highschool to one of the NBA elites ; he shows that through hardwork you can achieve amazing things - Winning the scoring title in the best basketball league in the world means VOLUME. We are proud of as he continues to inspire a flock of athletes across the world. CONGRATS!

AvsW Focus of the Day are two twin sisters, Svea and Maite Sturm, two German graduates playing for VCU.

Maite and Svea started their college career at VCU in 2017 and became two of the best rookies instantly. Maite finished the season being the 4th best scorer of her team and was named All-Atlantic 10 Rookie Team and All-Atlantic 10 Championship Team. Svea also started her college career strong by leading the team in shot on goal percentage and was named All-Atlantic 10 Rookie Team and All-Atlantic 10 Second Team.

After 4 and a half years playing for Virginia Commonwealth University, they both finished their season nationally ranked as 5th in assists per game with 0.67 per game and won the Atlantic 10 Championship! Fun fact : they also have a fan account !

Here are a few other accomplishments:
- 2018 All-Atlantic 10 First Team.
- 2018 NFHCA All-South Region Second Team.
- 2019 All-Atlantic 10 Second Team.
- 2019 All-Atlantic 10 First Team.
- 2019 NFHCA South Region Second Team.
- 2020 All-Atlantic 10 Second Team.
- 2020 NFHCA Senior Team selection.
- 2020 NFHCA Second Team All-American.
- 2020 Synapse Sports Second Team All-American.
- 2020 NFHCA All-South Region First Team.
- 2020 All-Atlantic 10 First Team.
- 2020 All-Championship Team.

The AvsW Team wants to congratulate them for their performance in and out of the field and wish them the best for the next chapter of their life!

The AvsW focus of the day is Marijn Jaarsma, a Dutch Goal Keeper playing for Bryant University.

Marijn Came as a freshman in 2018 and became an important piece of the team by appearing in all 18 games. She finished her freshman season ranked #1 in the MAAC and #6 in the nation with a save percentage of .734. She was also ranked #3 in the MAAC and #8 nationally for saves/game with an average of 7.47 saves per game!!

Marijn kept working hard and made it clear that she is where she is supposed to be throughout the years. Her senior year, she received NEC Defensive Player of the Year, NEC Goalkeeper of the Year, all-NEC First Team, finished ranked #1 in the nation in saves/game with an average of 11.22.

Here are a few other accomplishments :
- 2021 NFHCA All-Northeast Second Team.
- 2021 All-region honors.
- Named to the 2021 NEC Commissioner's and NEC Academic Honor Roll.
- 2021 NEC Defensive Player of the Year.
- NEC Goalkeeper of the Year.
- All-NEC First Team.
- Finished with a program-record of 202 saves.
- Finished with a program-record of 20 saves in a single game!!

Marijn is a perfect example of a successful college career in the United States! We don’t know what is next for her, but we wish her the best of lucks!

Today’s Focus is senior Sofia Southam, an Argentinian midfielder playing for the University of Michigan.

Sofia came to the University of Michigan as a freshman back in 2018. She started strong by starting 12 games during the season and appearing in 20 games total. She was right away a good asset for MICH knowing that she was leading the Wolverine Freshmen with 11 points, 5 goals and 1 assist. She then continued her progression until her senior Season. She finished this season ranked #2 in goals/game with an average of 1.21 and #3 in points per game with an average of 2.58.

Here are a few other accomplishments :
- Played for U18 Buenos Aires Team.
- 2021 Big 10 Offensive Player of the Year.
- 2021 B1G All-Tournament Team.
- 2021 All-West Region First Team.
- 2021 All-American First Team.
- Play for the USA Field Hockey’s National Team.

Congratulations on her senior year season and wishing her the best for the end of her studies and her future professional career.

Today’s Focus of the Day is volleyball player Magda Jehlarova, a Czech junior playing for Washington State University.

Magda came to WSU as a freshman in 2019 and started strong right away by being named ACVA National Freshman of the Year! She was able to prove throughout the years that she is a great middle blocker by finishing all her seasons with crazy stats! This season, she ended ranked #4 in the nation in blocks/set with 1.45 blocks/set in average and #2 in the nation in total blocks with 168 blocks.

Here are a few of her other accomplishments :
- Selected to play in the Czech Under 17 National team.
- 2019 AVCA National Freshman of the Year.
- 2019 ACVA Pacific North Region Freshman of the Year.
- 2019 PAC-12 Freshman of the Year.
- 2019 All-PAC 12 First Team.
- 2019 PAC-12 All-Freshman
- 2019 ACVA All-American Second Team.
- 2020 First Team All-PAC-12.
- 2021 First Team AVCA Pacific North Region Honors.
- 2020 Pac-12 Defensive Player of the Week.
- 2020 Pac-12 Offensive PLayer of the week.
- 2021 AVCA Pacific North All-Region honors.

We can wait to see what Magda will accomplish during her senior year! Wishing her the best…

Today’s Focus of the Day is volleyball player Yanlis Feliz, a Dominican redshirt sophomore playing for Chicago State.

Yanlis started her college career playing for the JUCO Seward County Community College. She then decided to transfer to Chicago State and her stats show that she made the right choice!
In only two seasons, she was ranked #5 in the nation in total kills with 540 kills and ranked #3 in the nation in kills/set with an average of 5.19 kills per set. She already ranked 43 points on only one game!!!
Here are a few other accomplishments that Yanlis Feliz got throughout her life :
- Competed with the under 18 and under 20 Dominican National team.
- 2021 Western Athletic Conference Player of the Year.
- 2021 AVCA All-Region
- 2020 CSU Athletics Female Student-Athlete of the Year.
- 2020 CSU Athletics Team MVP.
- 2019 NJCAA D1 All-American First Team.
- AVCA JUCO All-American First Team.
- Silver medal at the Under 18 World-Cup in 2017.

We all know this list will get longer and longer every year. We are excited to see how far Yanlis can go. Wishing her the best…

To end this serie of posts, we present you a goalkeeper coming from Greece : Giannis Nikopolidis. ⁣
⁣
Giannis has been playing for Georgetown University since his Freshman year. He has been pretty impressive since his arrival in the United States but throughout the years, he was able to confirm his talent. Here are a few accomplishments he got his Junior Year : ⁣
- FIrst Team All-American honoree ⁣
- First Team All-East Region ⁣
- Big East Goalkeeper of the year⁣
- First team All-Big East selection⁣
- College Player of the Week on 3/30 ⁣
- Big East Goal keeper of the week on 3/23 ⁣
- MAC Hermann Trophy Watch List⁣
- Big East Preseason Goalkeeper of the Year. ⁣
⁣
He is currently ranked 9th in the nation and only 2 goalkeepers made it to the top 25 players! ( Vitor Dias is currently ranked 6th, we are keeping an eye on him 👀). ⁣
⁣
We both wish Giannis Nikopolidis and his team a successful senior season ! ⁣
⁣