Global Tigers

Students come to Dalhousie University’s athletic teams from all over the world. The Dalhousie Gazette caught up with two athletes who’ve excelled since moving to Nova Scotia from abroad.

Sean Longley on his sister and leaving the Bahamas 

Sean Longley, a swimmer and third-year kinesiology student, specializes in freestyle swimming for the Tigers. He swam for Dal in three Atlantic University Sport championships. Longley came to Nova Scotia from Florida, where he swam at the Bolles School — a private school with an elite swimming program. 

Still, he says his older sister is the fastest he’s ever seen.  

Though the Bahamas are surrounded by beaches, Longley says not many people in the country know how to swim — a sentiment echoed on the Bahamian government’s website. Longley says he was lucky to have a pool in the backyard of his parents’ house. There, he learned to swim and fell in love with the sport while watching his sister do laps in the pool. 

“She just made watching swimming fun,” Longley says. “I was like, ‘Okay, I want to try that.’”  

When Sean was 11, his sister, Sian Longley, left for boarding school at 15 to swim competitively. His sister is his role model — her path pushed him to attend school in Florida to see what life and competitive swimming were like outside the Bahamas.   

Family, school and sports in Serbia  

Simona Matic, a third-year environmental science student, spent much of last summer at home in Belgrade, Serbia, working on her three-point shot, while her parents rebounded for her. Matic’s sister often played shooting games with her.

Even while vacationing in Greece with her family in July, beach days were followed by visits to the local basketball court. Matic says she gets her competitive nature from her sister and father.

Matic’s mother cares about her daughter’s basketball career but stresses academics. 

In Grade 12, Matic left Serbia to play basketball for a New York boarding school.

“My family supports me in everything I do,” Matic said. “They’re really happy that I’m here.”

Being away from loved ones 

Longley’s sister is studying to be a veterinarian at the Royal Veterinary College in London, United Kingdom. 

They FaceTime every Sunday, but he rarely sees her in person. He says since he was 11, when his sister left for boarding school, they’ve never spent a year in the same place. 

“It’s going to be really good to see her in December,” he says.  

Matic has had a similar experience living away from home. 

Since she left for New York City, the only time she sees her family is during the holidays due to expensive flights. Matic says the long stretches without family weigh on her.

“I have a couple [Serbian] friends here that make me feel a bit more like I’m at home,” she said. “But it’s hard when you don’t see family for eight or nine months.”  

A less and more competitive atmosphere 

Before leaving for New York City, Matic played for Košarkaški klub ženski Crvena zvezda (Red Star Women’s Basketball Club), a club competing in the Basketball League of Serbia who has won the league seven times since 2017. Matic says Red Star, and a few other teams, would beat the rest of the competition by a large margin, sometimes as wide as 50 points.

The Dal women’s basketball team has struggled in recent years; last year, they went 2-18 in the regular season and missed the playoffs. 

Matic is enjoying tight competition in the team’s pre-season and says this should be her most competitive AUS season yet. The team has started 2-8 which is their best start since the 2018-19 season.

Longley says the competitive internal culture at his high school in Florida made swimming feel like a chore — he felt like he was fighting for the coach’s attention every practice. 

“It didn’t feel like a family,” he said.

Longley says Dal men’s swimming coach Lance Cansdale has a more “holistic” approach to competitive swimming. He says Cansdale is always asking about how Longley is doing in school and how his family is doing. 

“He sees past the swimmer,” Longley says. 

He says Cansdale’s approach in the pool is also different than his high school in Florida. He encourages his swimmers to be open and honest about their bodies and he will plan practice accordingly.

“It’s not just swim, swim, swim.”