Titans To Tour Italy

The UW-Oshkosh men's basketball team will be traveling to Italy for an experience of a lifetime.

The players, coaches and family members will leave Oshkosh on Tuesday (May 17) and return on May 26. While abroad, the team will compete and bond over traveling in a foreign country together.

"It is far more than a basketball trip, it's going to be a cultural experience. Basketball is our excuse for doing it," said UW-Oshkosh head men's basketball coach Pat Juckem.

These experiences will be shared on an active blog by two student-athletes, Kyle Beyak and Jake Laihinen.

"Getting to travel abroad to play basketball is a dream come true," said Beyak, a freshman radiology major from Mount Prospect, Ill. "Basketball for a lot of people is just a sport, but for a lot of guys on our team it's what we love doing. It's our passion."

Besides basketball and team bonding, Laihinen, a junior majoring in both accounting and finance from Mequon, has other things on his mind.

"I have some friends studying abroad in Italy right now and I heard a lot of good things about the pizza," Laihinen said.

Whether it be the food, the game or the memories, the UW-Oshkosh men's basketball team is in for an exciting time on their upcoming trip to Italy.

Highlights of the Titans' tour of Italy – the program's first trip to Europe – include three games against local opponents and excursions in Florence, Lucca, Milan, Montecatini, Norcia, Perugia, Rome, Siena, Spoleto and Umbria.

Follow the UW-Oshkosh men's basketball team on their adventure at: uwosh.edu/deptblogs/athletics.

Written by Steph Sleeter, UW-Oshkosh Acting Marketing & Development Specialist