Wittenberg University Basketball Teams Win China Trip Openers

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The Wittenberg men's and women's basketball teams, coaches and several university administrators mug for the cameras just a group of about 40 departed for China on Thursday, May 16.

SPRINGFIELD, Ohio - Not a bad start to the trip of a lifetime for the Wittenberg University men's and women's basketball teams.

Touring China for a unique trip that will combine educational opportunities with athletic competitions, the Tiger teams played their first games in the Far East on Monday and came up with a pair of victories. Playing against a college team in Shanghai before a raucous crowd, the men's team scored a 93-64 victory and the women took the measure of their counterparts by a score of 64-48.

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Tiger men's basketball player Kenny Molz.

The games were the first of two that each team will play during an 11-day trip to China that is funded by a Freeman Foundation grant to Wittenberg's East Asian Studies (EAS) program. The Freeman Foundation is committed to increasing, strengthening and popularizing the teaching of Asia in college and university classrooms, in part by creating opportunities for students to experience Asian cultures for themselves.

A total of 29 players, 15 men and 14 women, are making the trip along with coaches and school administrators.

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Tiger women's basketball players Tiffany Keller and Kate Rolf on the morning of their departure.

The grant, the largest single foundation grant ever received by a Wittenberg program or department, totals $1,958,723 and is being distributed over a four-year period. With the grant, the EAS program aims to ensure that all students, regardless of their course of study, have an encounter with Asia as part of their undergraduate experience through increased opportunities for scholarly work in Asia for both faculty and students, recruitment efforts of high school students interested in pursuing Asian studies and the creation of new opportunities for student travel abroad.

A pioneer in East Asian Studies when founded in 1970, Wittenberg's EAS program now stands as one of the preeminent academic programs in the nation. More than 400 students have graduated with a degree in East Asian Studies since the program began, and most are either employed or attending graduate school immediately upon graduation, thanks in part to the vast network of contacts and connections established by the program's faculty members.

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