Jamestown Community College men’s soccer coach Pat Anderson, far right, is pictured at a recruiting showcase in Sweden in late February. Submitted photo

Jamestown Community College’s men’s soccer program has been on the rise for a couple of years now.

A lot of that success can be attributed to an influx of international talent on the Jayhawks’ roster.

Head coach Pat Anderson, who is entering his 12th season at the helm this fall, hopes a recent overseas trip adds another avenue to attracting more foreign talent.

At the end of February, with the help of Jamestown CC’s Jennifer Apthorpe in the Global Learning Office, Anderson embarked on a five-day trip to Sweden to attend a recruiting showcase in Stockholm.

“We’ve always talked about the idea of actually being able to see some of these kids in person,” said Anderson, who usually does his international recruiting by phone or video call. “We’d like to see how they are able to play when we could view them against other competition in their own countries.”

Joakim Frisk, who ran the showcase in Sweden, invited Anderson to attend and at first the former Panama coach didn’t think it would be possible.

Then Jamestown CC and Frisk came together and offered to pay a significant portion of the cost to make it happen.

“I was able to — with the help of the college — schedule a trip,” Anderson said. “It was 20 hours of travel each way.”

The Jayhawks currently have players from Australia, New Zealand, England and South American on their roster, but have yet to tap into the Scandinavian market.

“I got to see some kids who may or may not want to come to JCC, but it helped create a more permanent connection with that group over in Sweden,” Anderson said. “That may not pan out this spring, but it could turn out to be something we gain from in the long run.”

In fact, two-year goalkeeper Jakob Moore — a native of Wellington, New Zealand — recently signed a national letter of intent to attend NCAA Division I Dixie State University in the fall to play soccer for the Trailblazers.

“Within our region there is such a high quality of play. There is a respect in the NCAA for our programs. When you have a top-flight kid, they want to see him. They are definitely interested,” Anderson said. “Any time you get a kid like that and you can move him on to Division I, it puts a highlight on your program.”

Exposure and success stories like Moore’s can only make Jamestown CC a more attractive option for international talent to make a mark in the United States at the NJCAA level before moving on to four-year colleges and institutions.

The college itself has also been very supportive and encouraging its athletics department to add international students.

Anderson drove to Buffalo on Wednesday, Feb. 26 and flew to Newark, New Jersey before connecting in Frankfurt, Germany en route to Stockholm.

He attended a meeting with Frisk on Thursday night and set up the showcase on Friday night before attending the actual showcase all day Saturday.

On Sunday morning, Anderson caught a 6 a.m. flight back to Frankfurt before connecting at Dulles in Washington, D.C. and landing in Buffalo around 7 p.m. that evening.

Although there was not a lot of rest and relaxation or sight seeing involved, Anderson felt the trip was well worth it.

“The weekend before, they had a couple of individual players looked at by UCLA,” Anderson said. “It’s what you have to do to make that next step. If going to Sweden and getting them to know what JCC is all about allows us to pick up one or two of those people, that would be a great thing.”

The Jayhawks likely won’t see the fruits of Anderson’s labor this fall — they already have 12 new players signed for the upcoming season — but the longtime coach hopes the connections made over the past two months help the Jayhawks rise to the top of Region 3.

Jamestown CC finished 12-6-3 this past year, including 8-4-2 in the region, and won a subregional game against Erie CC before losing to Genesee CC in the regional semifinals.

The Cougars went on to lose in the national semifinals.

“The only chance you have of moving up with those top-level programs is to make that next jump by making more and more connections,” Anderson said. “We are looking for one or two players that take you from being a high-quality, solid team to one of the best teams. I don’t know exactly how to find those guys other than to just work hard.”

With programs like Herkimer College, Mohawk Valley CC, Onondaga CC and Genesee CC on Jamestown’s CC roster every fall, Anderson has to put in heavy recruiting work just to “keep up with the Joneses.”

“We spend a lot of hours working with people to find the right fit for our program,” Anderson said. “If you hit the right two or three … all of those guys who are really good players to start out with become even better.”