Salif Kante has grabbed success this spring, but he still awaits the fulfillment of his dreams.
He's played tennis with dominance in tournament after tournament. In February, in Mali, he came from far behind, 1-5, to defeat a player from Burkina Faso and win the tournament (he's pictured here). The next month, he took the title of National Champion of Senegal, by defeating 1553-ranked Daouda Ndiaye. Daouda is a tall, muscular player with a searing serve who played Division I tennis at Brigham Young-Hawaii (part of the match is on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X4syZUC38e8.)
At his matches, I used to watch nervously, but there is something different now. He's not just playing consistently and confidently. There is a level of maturity he's reached, a steely assuredness he possesses. He sits quietly looking at notes when changing courts. I worry less.
He's not just played amazing tennis this spring. He's audited two of my classes at Suffolk, giving speeches and participating in class discussions -- all in English. And just last week, he overcame the final hurdle, achieving a high enough score on his ACT to play Division II tennis.
But he awaits a scholarship offer.
For those of you who've followed his story, you know that he had two Division I full scholarship offers but because of how the NCAA interpreted their rules, they looked only at his baccalaureate scores to determine his GPA and awarded him too low of a GPA to allow him to play. (Remarkable. Only 14% of all the students in Senegal passed the national exam, and passing gives you automatic entry into a Senegalese university, but the NCAA awarded him a low GPA. Had they looked at his high school transcript, he'd be in America as I write. (I still kick myself for sending them his baccalaureate exam results -- I'd thought it evidence of academic proweress -- because passing the exam isn't a requirement.)
Because of the NCAA interpretation, he had to make a certain score on his ACT. He studied for hours. And he did it! (This score is like making a 2.0 GPA, and is no small feat for a French speaker, unaccustomed to America's multiple choice tests.)
We'd thought it was over then, that he had a full offer awaiting him at a Division II school.
But that coach has now told him that the money may not be there -- that the recession is hurting his ability to award scholarships. I told the coach how much Salif had improved from two years ago when he was in camps in the U.S. "It was never a question of his tennis skills. He didn't need to get any better," the coach remarked, "I would take him if he still played at the same level."
How do we convey this to coaches in the U.S.? Email, YouTube, the global world of internet. Salif is trying to tell his story to coaches across America, waiting for an offer, with determination and a firm belief still that his dreams will come true.
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