Typical study abroad experiences involve immersion in an intriguing and unfamiliar culture, overcoming language barriers, experiencing college classes at different institutions, making new friends and accumulating countless memories to share with family and friends at home.
For rising senior Ian de Ruiter, his study abroad experience in Maastricht last spring was all of the above but with a slight twist. The Muhlenberg lacrosse player spent several days of his semester-long stay in the Netherlands successfully trying out for the Dutch National Lacrosse Team.
De Ruiter, who was born in the United States and played for nationally ranked John Jay High School in his hometown of Cross River, N.Y., has a Dutch passport, making him eligible to try out for the national team.
Former Muhlenberg teammate Brent Siebold ’11, who also tried out for the Dutch National Team during his study-abroad stint in Maastricht, brought this eligibility to de Ruiter’s attention and encouraged him to try out for the team.
De Ruiter, whose given name is Hendrick, that of his Dutch-born paternal grandfather, is quite familiar with the country because he visits his family there every other Christmas.
“My dad was born and raised in Holland and his whole family lives there,” says de Ruiter. “So it was natural for me to go there to study and play lacrosse.”
The 2012 European Lacrosse Championship was held in Amsterdam, the capital of the Netherlands, this past June, so de Ruiter was able to compete for the Dutch team on their home turf.
De Ruiter arrived in Holland and spent a week with his family before beginning a rigorous 10-day training camp in preparation for the tournament.
“It was a little more intense than I thought it would be,” he laughs. “They had us out in the woods and wanted us really focusing on training and getting ready for the tournament. Eat, sleep, practice. That was it. They didn’t even want us going on Facebook.”
De Ruiter explains that the national team consisted of several Dutch players and five North Americans who, like him, have Dutch passports but don’t live in Holland.
Two of the North Americans on the team were from Canada and the other three were from the United States. Ironically, de Ruiter knew the Dutch players from the tryouts but didn’t know any of the North American players.
The players from Holland, all of them still in school, ranged in age from 23 to 30 years old. De Ruiter, at 21, was one of the youngest players on the team.
De Ruiter says that lacrosse is not as popular in Holland as it is in America and the sport is played primarily by college students. Even though the game was slightly different from what he usually experiences as a defender in the highly competitive Centennial Conference, playing in Europe was undoubtedly a positive experience.
“Each team had a couple of really, really good players which made it a solid game overall,” he states.
Three-time All-American goalie Grant Zimmerman from the University of North Carolina was one of de Ruiter’s fellow Americans on the Dutch team.
“At Muhlenberg, it’s a lot more organized because everyone has been playing a lot longer,” he continues. “Physically and athletically, the play in Europe is just as good. It actually gets more physical there because there are a lot of missed passes, which creates chaotic situations.”
Right from the get-go, de Ruiter had the opportunity to play in the Olympic stadium in Amsterdam in front of 2,000 lacrosse fans. Amsterdam hosted the Olympic Games back in 1928.
“It was the first time lacrosse was played there since it was a demonstration sport in the early Olympics,” he recalls. “People were going nuts and everyone was dressed up in orange. We were playing Germany, which is Holland’s biggest rival in everything. The fans were doing Dutch cheers when we walked out. It was really cool to be playing for the entire country, and the fans were really passionate.”
The Dutch National Team finished fourth out of 17 teams in the European Championship despite having a 3-6 record in group play. They lost to Sweden in the tournament consolation game by one goal, just missing out on a bronze medal.
According to de Ruiter, his team struggled during the group stage of the tournament because they were in the toughest group with the most competitive teams. Consequently, they had a low seed coming into the final tournament and had to play the Czech Republic in the first round, the best team in the group below.
“That game was really exciting. We won in triple OT.”
The Dutch then faced an inexperienced Israeli team in the second round and came away with another victory. In the semifinals they were matched up against England.
“They were the best team in the entire tournament by far,” states de Ruiter. “We played them earlier during the group stage and they beat us pretty well. This time we hung in with them for half of the game.”
Despite the loss to Sweden in the next game de Ruiter says it was a pretty significant accomplishment to make it as far as they did in the tournament and finish fourth in the final standings.
With training camp and tournament play, the team only had one day off, but de Ruiter says they made the most of it.
“We rented bikes with a bunch of Dutch guys on the team and they took us around to cool spots to eat. It was fun to go around with the locals. I like how laid back it is there. It’s a city but it’s very relaxed.”
De Ruiter says the language barrier wasn’t a problem because all of the Dutch players can speak English, making it easy to communicate off and even on the field, where some Dutch terms are used.
“On the field it’s a mix of Dutch and English. I’m able to understand the Dutch commands they use even though I can’t actually speak the language,” he states.
De Ruiter believes one of the most important things he learned while playing for the national team, and something he would like to bring back to his team at Muhlenberg, didn’t have to do with lacrosse skills.
“They really focused on team building and creating a close knit group when we were there. The team would hang out and watch movies. It wasn’t all about trying to get better at lacrosse. I want to get new freshmen involved and build a close family atmosphere among the team here at Muhlenberg.”
De Ruiter will graduate shortly after the lacrosse season concludes in the spring. After graduation, the finance major hopes to get a job with Merrill Lynch, where he interned this summer. He does, however, plan to keep lacrosse in his life.
“If I have the chance, I’m definitely going to try out for the Dutch National Team again. It was an awesome experience and I really enjoyed it.”
Needless to say we were happy to hear the halftime whistle. The second half started much better as we looked more relaxed and started to have some opportunities at goal. We cut the deficit in half when Chris Royer cut the ball inside and found Danny Way over top, who controlled the ball and slid it into the far corner underneath the GK for our first goal of the trip.
