Years from now, when the coronavirus pandemic is over and we are back out enjoying our regular lives, the questions will come.
“Where were you when it broke out?”
“Where did you ride it out?”
Five UA international student-athletes — Gitte Heynemans, Alejandro Reguant, Shem Kemboi, Timothy Kibet and Jade Neser — will have the same response.
They rode out COVID-19 in Tucson, half a world away from their home countries.
The Star talked to players from four sports — women’s tennis, men’s tennis, track and field and swimming — about their experiences during the shutdown. Here’s what they had to say:
Gitte Heynemans, women’s tennis
A junior from Hofstade, Belgium, Heynemans was in Salt Lake City with her team when the news broke.
She was off to a good start for the season, and so was her team. The Wildcats were 10-7 and, they believed, on the brink of something special.
The cancellation was unexpected, even though the mostly international roster had been watching what was going on overseas.
“In Europe it was bad, and we were talking about it but not panicking,” Heynemans said. “I started getting nervous for my family and my grandparents. It was a big shock at first. We just were starting Pac-12s, and all of a sudden it was canceled. It was so fast I didn’t have time to think about it. They were going to have us stay, but it was not safe. We flew back (to Tucson) the next day. It was wild — a wild few weeks.”
Heynemans and her teammates were flooded with emails packed with information upon their return. They practiced in small groups at first, but stopped when all UA facilities were closed.
“It was a big setback,” she said. “No matches is one thing, but if we can’t play to improve, that’s another. I understand, though. This is bigger than sports.”
The Wildcats are still getting in training — just not on the court. Arizona’s players work out individually five days a week, focusing on core strength. Heynemans also runs a lot.
Her decision to stay in Tucson during the pandemic was pretty straightforward. Things were safer in the United States. Heynemans’ family didn’t want to expose her to the virus by bringing her home. She spends a lot of time talking to all four grandparents, her parents and her younger sister — all of whom all healthy.
Things have now stabilized in Belgium, and the country is slowly letting up on its precautionary measures. Most of Heynemans’ schoolwork is completed, and she is planning on going home. Upon arriving, she’ll self-quarantine for two weeks.
“I am happy to almost be coming home — I have something to look forward to,” she said. “I still can’t believe this is the life we are living. It is definitely weird times. We are staying in touch as a team. We went from seeing each other close to 24/7, and being part of it to not being together, which is against what we are used to. The Zoom meetings and talking to people going through the same thing helps.”
Shem Kemboi, Timothy Kibet,
track & field
Kemboi and Kibet grew up in Kenya. And despite living less than an hour away from each other, they didn’t know each other until the Arizona Wildcats’ coaches introduced them. Now, they’re close friends and roommates.
“He understands me more than any other person,” Kemboi said of Kibet.
The sophomores both participate in cross country and track and race distances — although Kibet runs 800 and 1,500 meters during the indoor and outdoor track seasons, while Kemboi focuses on 3,000 and 5,000.
Kemboi only ran three times during indoor season as he is coming off a knee injury. He made those count, posting two personal bests at the MPSF Championships and finishing sixth at the 3,000 at the Larry Wieczorek Invitational before deciding to redshirt.
Kibet ran five times during the outdoor season, finishing in the top 10 three times.
When their season was canceled, they both decided to stay in Tucson.
Kibet said he did not know when — or if — the two could return if they went back to Kenya. The idea of catching a connecting flight in Europe, where the virus was raging six weeks ago, wasn’t particularly attractive.
Both runners think of their families constantly. Kibet’s family lives in a rural area and rarely goes out.
“They are worried, and they say, ‘You are the only one in the family that’s not here. We just hope you are safe. Stay away, stay at home and be, just be careful,’ ” Kibet said. “To be away from home, it’s hard some times when you think it might get worse and get stuck here, and you don’t get to see your family or something bad happens, then you just have to keep faith and believe it will come to an end soon.”
Kemboi’s family lives in a more urban area. He isn’t planning to return until December.
“I’m sure they miss me; I miss them, too,” Kemboi said. “But the good thing, we are a team. (Kibet is) like my brother. We are two Kenyans. If we can’t get home, we have more. We share happiness and life’s core.”
For now, Kemboi is running on grass as part of his rehab. Kibet talks longer runs on the Rillito River path.
They are both soccer fans, albeit for rival teams. Kemboi follows Manchester City, while Kibet is a Manchester United fan. They have been rewatching old matches in the afternoon, after classes are over for the day.
In the evenings, they can call their families, who are just waking up to start their day.
Alejandro Reguant, men’s tennis
Reguant watched as the coronavirus shut down his native Spain. He figured it was only a matter of time before the United States followed suit.
Reguant and his UA teammates learned of the season’s cancellation while they prepared to play Pepperdine.
After Arizona’s warmups, it began to rain. The Wildcats bolted for a nearby Whole Foods for snacks. While they shopped, UA coach Clancy Shields talked on the phone with UA athletic director Dave Heeke.
It was not long before their match — and season — was called off. Reguant took the news hard.
“For me, it was pretty sad because being a senior you’ve been practicing your whole life for moments like your senior season. And we were ready to do something special this year,” he said.
Reguant was hoping that the NCAA would give seniors in spring sports an extra year and was happy when they finally did. He plans to return next season. He needs only eight or nine classes to complete a double-major in business management and business economics.
Reguant said his parents have been in quarantine for more than 40 days, leaving their house only for groceries.
“I call my parents and my grandma every day,” he said. “I put myself in their situation — they are only at home, they don’t have anything to do. I try to make it easier for them in a way, so they can be entertained by talking to me.
“At the beginning, my mom was just wanting me to get home. Every night she was reading or listening to the news, it was just saying that the United States was going to get a lot worse.
“She was just like, ‘Come home as soon as possible.’ But I was like, ‘No, I don’t want to go home because the situation there is not good.’ … My dad, from the beginning, he was ‘Do whatever you think is best, but be careful with this virus and try to stay healthy.’
“That’s what I’ve been trying to do, because now if I go home the last thing I want to do is get infected and then give it to my parents.”
Reguant has found open courts at local high schools and La Paloma Country Club. In addition, he has been doing strength and conditioning workouts every day.
A handful of Reguant’s UA teammates began heading home a few weeks ago. Filip Malbasic and Jonas Ziverts, for example, returned to their native Sweden from Tucson. Reguant hopes to follow them overseas soon.
“It’s kind of rough,” he said. “To be stuck at home, I’d rather be with my parents than alone here.”
Jade Neser, swimming
Neser, a freshman who focuses on freestyle and breaststroke, had just returned from the Pac-12 Championships and was about a week away from heading to the NCAAs when their season ended prematurely.
The coronavirus really hit home when she was competing at the Pac-12 Tournament in Washington.
“Two people died in King County, and that’s where we were actually racing,” Neser said. “That was the first big shock in America and then I’d say about two weeks later, it hit my home country, South Africa. And I think everything just got way more serious after that.”
With the travel restrictions from South Africa already in place, Neser couldn’t go home to Johannesburg even if she wanted to.
“My friend who’s in Michigan had a flight back home to South Africa, and she got to the airport, and then they ended up canceling her flight back home,” she said. “She was stranded in another city, which is way worse than anything I had to go through.
“I’d much rather be here, because I have my teammates and we can exercise together as opposed to being home, I wouldn’t really have many teammates with me. What also concerned me was if I did go back home to South Africa and things opened up here — training opened up — what if America didn’t let me back in? I’d rather be just waiting for the green light to go back to training.”
In Tucson, Neser faced a dilemma: Where to live? The UA dorms were closing. She is now living with one of her teammates.
Neser is working out, too. Arizona’s coaches have encouraged their swimmers to get their heart rate up during this time. Neser is using the Nike training app every day for 30 to 40 minutes, focusing on endurance, strength and specific body parts such as her arms. She also has been watching yoga videos on YouTube.
On the weekends, Neser and a few of her teammates go for morning hikes. They are also having old-school fun.
“We’ve been scrounging through cupboards and finding very old games that we used to play with when we were 10 years old,” Neser said. “One thing that we’ve revealed is Battleship — we played that like four hours straight. I love that game and playing UNO, using just cards to play as many things as we possibly can.”
