THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, March 13, 1996 TAG: 9603130647
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY VICKI L. FRIEDMAN, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: NORFOLK LENGTH: Long : 193 lines
When you're thousands of miles from home and a three-minute phone call to your folks costs $20, it helps to have someone nearby who speaks the same language.
Old Dominion students Clarisse Machanguana, Ticha Penicheiro, Mery Andrade and Sonia Antunes speak Portuguese in their apartment, English in class and basketball any time, anywhere. Three of them star on the nation's sixth-ranked basketball team; the fourth, Antunes, plays soccer and is an equipment manager for the Lady Monarchs.
Penicheiro calls Machanguana ``a mom to all of us.'' If she's mom, then Penicheiro's the big sister, the one who looks out for younger roomies Andrade and Antunes.
``Most people spend Christmas with their families,'' Penicheiro says. ``We spend it with our VCR.''
And each other.
The four share an apartment and a bond: a country in southwestern Europe, bordered by Spain to the north and east, and the Atlantic Ocean to the south and west.
``Portugal,'' Penicheiro says. ``It's really not all that different from Norfolk.''
Especially when you have your family with you.
Machanguana is not Portuguese. The Lady Monarchs' most graceful big woman, whose baby face is framed by short braids, hails from Maputo, Mozambique. But Portuguese is her native language.
``That's all we speak here,'' says Penicheiro, sitting in their sparsely decorated living room that holds no reminders of home. ``We try to speak English, but it doesn't work.''
Penicheiro and Antunes speak near-perfect English; Andrade and Machanguana are fluent but more self-conscious about their words. At times their Portuguese spills over to the court, where Penicheiro often quarterbacks the team via her native tongue.
Some teammates have picked up a bit of Portuguese, and the names of set plays are understood in any language.
Machanguana, Penicheiro and Andrade have been running those plays since they were kids. In the absence of organized high school sports in Portugal, club basketball became their outlet. Penicheiro played the point for the Santarem club in a league that allows each team to use one foreign player. Santarem's foreign player was Machanguana.
Portugal's small size - with 9 million people, its population is about the same as that of metropolitan Chicago - makes it conducive to club basketball. With 12 to 14 teams competing nationwide, Penicheiro dubs it ``a mini-CAA. Everybody knows everybody.''
Andrade and Antunes played for the Amadora club along with Allison Greene, who later would become an assistant coach at ODU. Penicheiro and Andrade also were teammates on Portugal's national team.
``She (Penicheiro) was doing the fancy stuff then,'' Greene says, referring to the magician-like assists that are crowd-pleasers at Old Dominion. ``Mery was doing the dirty work, getting rebounds, being physical. Ticha was the fans' player, doing fancy-smancy stuff.''
When Penicheiro spoke to Greene about visiting ODU, she touted an agile, 6-foot-5 post player on her club team - Machanguana. Later, ODU coach Wendy Larry watched them in Portugal and knew she wanted both.
Initially, the recruiting visit was for both Machanguana and Penicheiro, who shared an apartment with other teammates. But a problem developed with Machanguana's visa, so Penicheiro went alone. She signed during the trip.
Machanguana took longer to decide among ODU, Florida and Colorado despite Penicheiro's heavy lobbying for Norfolk. She wanted to come to the United States as did her younger brother, Raul, who plays for Montana State.
``I didn't think I was going to come here and get rich,'' she says. ``But the image that the American TV gives is not like the projects in Chicago. They don't see that. People think there's no poverty here. I wanted to come because there's more than one opportunity for life. That's not easy in my country.''
Finally, Machanguana chose Norfolk.
``I had no family,'' she says. ``I thought it was real important knowing somebody or being comfortable with the situation, then it's easy to go wherever you go.''
Easier still for Andrade and Antunes the next year.
``Ticha and Clarisse being pioneers made Mery and Sonia's transition a lot easier,'' Greene says. ``It's like going with one of your best friends to a new place and having another best friend there.''
This year, Andrade and Antunes moved in with Penicheiro and Machanguana. Though her roommates brag on Antunes' basketball skills - ``She can shoot!'' Penicheiro exclaims - her scholarship is with the soccer team, coached by another native of Portugal, Joe Periera.
True to her on-court persona, Penicheiro is the gregarious one of the bunch, the social butterfly always eager to plan an outing to the mall or the movies. Penicheiro, whom Greene regards as ``always having a twinkle in her eyes,'' is easily the most Americanized. Off the court she takes her ponytail down and, Machanguana says, becomes a clothes horse.
``Suppose we're going to Tennessee or someplace to play basketball; she takes everything,'' Machanguana says. ``So when we came here for good, there's Ticha in the airport with more bags than they allow.''
Penicheiro kids back at her normally subdued roommate: ``I always try to get them to go out. Clarisse, sometimes, it's like she's glued to the chair. She'll say, `I'm not leaving the house,' and I'll say `OK, we'll bring you in the chair.' ''
Machanguana admits to being difficult.
``When I'm not happy with something, they will know,'' she says. ``If they were all like me, we'd have other roommates.''
They rarely agree when renting movies, a favorite pastime during the holidays, when they'll watch six or eight a day. They like comedies, although Machanguana confesses she often doesn't share her roommates' zany sense of humor: ``That's too bad because sometimes I need it. I laugh more by listening to them laughing.''
It's hard to pull Machanguana and Antunes away from the books. A month ago, Antunes tore her right anterior cruciate ligament. Hobbling on crutches, she tends to linger in the living room with the others for longer periods of time now rather than retreating to studying in bedroom.
``Makes me more social,'' Antunes says.
Neither Penicheiro nor Andrade enjoys reading.
``I don't like to read, especially if it's in English,'' Andrade says. ``If I don't understand one word, I'm not the type to go to the dictionary. I'll say, `Ticha, do you know this word? No? Well, forget it.' ''
Penicheiro starts books without finishing them.
``Last year I got Nancy Lieberman's autobiography,'' she says. ``I checked it out of the library. I tried, but man, it's too thick. I cannot finish it.''
Andrade says she prefers television because it provides images with the words. In addition to ``Melrose Place,'' they chill out together over ``Martin,'' ``Beverly Hills 90210,'' talk shows and sports.
``I love to watch basketball - men, women, it doesn't matter,'' says Penicheiro, who often tapes games on TV and sends them and ODU games home.
American food was another adjustment, especially for Machanguana.
``I don't have a problem with fast food, but the real food I have trouble with,'' she says. ``Like beans. Some Americans put sugar in them. And chicken. They use a lot of sauces. I don't like sauces.''
``She likes Sunkist,'' Penicheiro says, noting the three 2-liter bottles in the kitchen, ribbing Machanguana about her tendency to empty the Food Lion shelves of all available orange soda.
Their schedules leave little time for socializing beyond the Old Dominion campus. Antunes said ODU's international makeup appealed to her - 86 countries are represented in the student body. Norfolk has a Portuguese community, but Antunes says they don't mingle much in it: ``There's so little time.''
They all studied for a year in Portugal, entering ODU as sophomores. The first semester for all but Penicheiro consisted of English classes, so coupled with the transfer, the others are behind. Penicheiro will return home to play for the Portuguese national team in May; the others will probably remain for summer school.
Machanguana came in as a psychology major but has since become interested in criminal justice.
``Being a lawyer, I think I can help more, and I can be more useful in my country,'' she says. ``People in Africa are more worried about getting food than going to a psychologist.''
Antunes is majoring in human services counseling and is considering teaching, and Penicheiro would like to be a sports broadcaster - basketball-related, of course.
``I want to talk about what I know,'' she says.
Andrade, although majoring in physical education, plans to practice pediatric medicine. She plans to go to med school in Portugal.
A big kid herself with a room full of stuffed animals, Andrade is motivated by her love of children. Always flocked by kids after games, her roommates tease her about her tendency to watch cartoons. But she explains: ``It's not the cartoons. I love watching the cartoons with the kids. I love being with the kids.''
While other teammates' parents are frequent visitors and regular fans in the stands, the four rarely see their families.
Andrade's family has almost never watched her play.
``My grandma thinks playing basketball is a thing for guys,'' she says. ``My family was never aware whether I was a good player or a bad player. When we went to play in the European championships and my team started getting in the newspapers, my aunt was like, `Ah, you seem to be a good player.' ''
They are reluctant to speculate on returning home for good after college. Talk of a women's professional league excites Machanguana, Penicheiro and Andrade and could move them to stay in the United States.
Machanguana looks around their living room at all the American ``necessities'' they have acquired: the TV, VCR, stereo and mountain bikes.
``How are we going to take all this?'' she says. ``We're going to have to sell it all.''
``I'll just come back and take stuff every year,'' Penicheiro jokes.
Machanguana says that wherever she goes, she wants to be independent. Her family is accustomed to her living in another country and sending back news via fax or the occasional letter.
``I tell them it's a good place,'' she says, ``and they trust me. I was looking for a place, almost like home.''
She found it. ILLUSTRATION: Color photo
VICKI CRONIS/The Virginian-Pilot
Sonia Antunes, left, Mery Andrade, Clarisse Machanguana and Ticha
Penicheiro speak fluent English. But when they are together, it's
Portuguese. ``That's all we speak here,'' Penichero says.
Photos
VICKI CRONIS/The Virginian-Pilot
Old Dominion's Clarisse Machanguana rests as she and Mery Andrade
cook dinner after a long day of classes and practice. The two share
an apartment with two other teammates.
by CNB