LC Meridian

Issue date: 5/1/07 Section: Sports

Media Credit: Tony Correa Kareem Benjamin, #22

The City University of New York Athletic Conference (CUNYAC) office has announced that the conference, for the fifth year in a row, will be taking some of their elite athletes to a foreign country as the CUNYAC will be headed to Italy this summer for a Goodwill Tour from June 22 to July 6, 2007. Lehman College all-star baseball players Kareem Benjamin, and Jhonny Reyes have been selected to this traveling squad.

The conference will send an All-Star baseball team amongst the five senior college conference institutions that sponsor baseball (John Jay College, the City College of New York, Baruch College, Lehman College, and the College of Staten Island) as well as the four junior college institutions that have the sport (Borough of Manhattan Community College, Bronx Community College, Kingsborough Community College, and Queensborough Community College) to partake on the tour.

"I know this year the tour is going to be action packed," said CUNYAC Executive Director Zak Ivkovic. "It is a great opportunity for our student-athletes, and many of them will be going to a country they have never been to."

During the 12 day visit the team will have an opportunity to visit cities such as Rome, Florence, and Parma where they will learn the culture in Italy, compete in several baseball games, and assist the coaching staff with baseball clinics. Most importantly, the team will perform acts of community service for under privileged families, including visiting local hospitals and providing gifts for needy children.

"The community service work that goes on is what has made the Goodwill Tour the huge success that it has been," Ivkovic said. "It is a very fulfilling thing for all the student athletes who go on these trips to help the less fortunate. It reminds them of how fortunate they actually are. They get so much out of it and the communities they serve have always been overjoyed with tears."

The team is selected based on relevant credentials that include skill level, academic performance, sportsmanship, general attitude, and recommendations from the coaches.

John Jay head coach Dan Palumbo, the College of Staten Island assistant coach Neil Barbella, and the head coach from the 2007 community college championship, to be determined on May 3, will comprise of the coaching staff on the trip.

"This is a great opportunity to compete on the international level," said Reyes. "To represent both Lehman College and the CUNY athletic conference is something that both Kareem and I look forward to doing."

Media Credit: Tony Correa Johnny Reyes, #3

The CUNYAC Goodwill Tour has become a staple for the conference. For the past four years CUNYAC All-Star teams have toured a variety of nations. Last year a men's soccer team toured South Africa, while in 2005 the conference made a Goodwill Tour visit to Argentina. In 2004 the CUNYAC sent a women's basketball team to Ecuador, and in 2003 a men's basketball team toured the Dominican Republic.

"Each year we try to make the Goodwill Tour better and better for everyone involved," said Ivkovic. "After the first Goodwill Tour many people thought it would only be a one time thing. But we have had it now for five years so it really has become a part of the CUNY."

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