Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, April 13, 1994 TAG: 9404130022
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-6 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: RALPH BERRIER JR.
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
He wanted to become a professional tennis player, but felt he could not achieve such distinction in his homeland of Morocco, a country whose high schools and universities do not offer athletics.
So, he left Casablanca, the largest city in Morocco and the second-largest city on the African continent, with an ethnically diverse population in excess of 4 million, and a smorgasbord of marketplaces, the Casbah, fountains, palm trees and luxury hotels with Moorish arches.
A sports Mecca, Morocco is not.
"People always confuse it with Monaco," said Benjelloun, referring to the Mediterranean country where princes and Hollywood starlets play tennis.
Casablanca doesn't even resemble the city that lends its name to the American film classic.
"It was actually filmed in Hollywood, I believe," said Benjelloun.
Benjelloun came to the United Sates in 1989 as an exchange student in search of a tennis scholarship to an American university. Instead, he found the opportunities to play collegiate tennis were just as limited in the U.S. as they were in Morocco.
It wasn't until late 1990 - when he was back in Morocco - that Radford men's tennis coach Bruce Harrison contacted him. For the past three years, Benjelloun has been Radford's best tennis player and has helped lead the Highlanders to their best record ever this spring.
Heading into this week's Big South Conference tennis tournament in Charleston, S.C., Radford is 19-6. Benjelloun, a senior, has a 22-1 record in dual-match singles play. Including tournaments, he is 30-3.
In 1990, Benjelloun was playing tennis at Western Albemarle High School in Charlottesville. He didn't lose a match that year - never lost a set, in fact - on the way to winning Virginia's Group AAA state singles championship.
That spring, he wrote letters to Virginia Tech, George Mason and Florida State, but was informed by those schools that their scholarship allotments were already filled. A coach from the University of Virginia told Benjelloun he would stop by and watch him play, then failed to make the journey across town to Western Albemarle.
"That made me mad," Benjelloun said. "It made me doubt my capabilities, even though he never saw me play."
Harrison had never seen Benjelloun play, either. Shortly after becoming men's tennis coach at Radford in the fall of 1990, Harrison learned about Benjelloun from one of his players, Mourad Fahim, also from Casablanca. Harrison signed Benjelloun late that fall.
Benjelloun, Fahim and Mehdi Maida - Radford's top three players - are all from Casablanca. Each had to learn his game playing on Moroccan tennis clubs.
Benjelloun is currently ranked as the 24th-best player in Region II, a division that includes Division I schools from Maryland to Florida. He has won the East Tennessee State University Fall Tournament three straight years, and he was the Big South's runner-up last year in No. 1 singles play. Benjelloun would be a favorite to win that championship this year, but the Big South no longer offers individual titles.
A marketing major who speaks English, Arabic and French fluently, Benjelloun has a 3.9 overall grade-point average and a boasts a 4.0 GPA in his major.
"He's definitely a student, before an athlete," said Harrison.
Harrison, a Blacksburg native and a graduate of Emory and Henry, is as responsible as anyone for Radford's success. He has had winning seasons in each of his four years at the helm, and his overall coaching record is 56-33. This year, Radford went 6-2 in the Big South and ended in a second-place tie, the Highlanders' best conference finish ever.
"All the credit goes to our players," said Harrison, who had been an assistant tennis coach at Ferrum but had never been a head coach before coming to Radford.
\ BASEBALL THRILLERS: The Highlander baseball team took over the top spot in the Big South with a thrilling three-game sweep of Towson State last weekend at Dedmon Center Park in a series that featured three come-from-behind wins. The Highlanders trailed 8-0 in the first game of Saturday's doubleheader before winning 13-12, then erased an early defict to take the second game 12-6.
The best game may have been Sunday's finale, which Radford won 7-6 in 10 innings. In the ninth inning of that game, junior leftfielder Duane Filchner threw out the potential go-ahead run when he caught a deep fly in foul territory and fired a one-hop throw to catcher Jeff Francis to nail Craig Miller in a close play at the plate.
Radford won the game in the 10th when Donnie Fields, who was 4-for-4 for the day, doubled home Kelly Dampeer.
\ BASEBALL'S BEST: The baseball team's current four-game winning streak is its longest of the season. The Highlanders have won seven of their last nine games . . . Junior reliever Travis Toms leads Radford in victories and saves (five of each) and is on pace to break Chris Connolly's 1991 record of 23 appearances. Toms has appeared in 19 games. . . . Last week against Milligan, senior first baseman Denny Van Pelt, Radford's all-time stolen base leader with 42 swipes in his career, tied the single-season mark of 17 stolen bases set by Rob Amos.
\ SOFTBALL NOTES: Sophomore outfielder Suzie Rath was 5-for-10 in four games at the Georgia Tech Buzz Classic last week. Rath is batting .279 and leads the team with 29 hits, five triples and 20 runs scored. She is 41 of 46 in stolen base attempts in her career. . . . Senior third baseman Kate Neuman is one RBI away from tying her season record of 17.
\ UPCOMING IN RADFORD: Baseball, April 13, Bristol, 3 p.m.; April 19, Virginia (at Calfee Park in Pulaski), 7 p.m.; April 20, James Madison, 3 p.m.; April 23, Coastal Carolina (DH), 1 p.m.; April 24, Coastal Carolina, 1 p.m.; April 25, VMI, 4 p.m.; April 26, Virginia Intermont (DH), 1 p.m. Softball, April 14, UNC Greensboro, 3 p.m.; April 21-23 at Big South tournament in Rock Hill, S.C.
by CNB