Salem CC softball outfielder Beukman gives the Mighty Oaks some international flavor with her arrival from South Africa
By Al Muskewitz
Riverview Sports News
PENNSVILLE – It’s hardly unusual for a college team to have players from places far from its campus footprint. In fact, it’s sort of expected. That’s why they call it recruiting.
Of course, most of those players come from within the United States, but even some those are from some far-flung locales invariably sparking a query of how they got here.
That question is even more poignant when it comes to Salem CC outfielder KiKi Beukman. While many of the Mighty Oaks have come halfway across the country to join the team, Beukman came from halfway around the world.
Ask her how in the world she got here and her answer is quick and to the point.
“By the plane, you know,” she said and laughed.
Actually, two of them. From her home in Pretoria, South Africa, there’s an eight-hour flight to Doha, Qatar, and then a 16-hour jaunt to Philadelphia. That would be 10,661 miles door-to-door, 10 total time zones. Leave there Tuesday night, get here Wednesday afternoon.
When Beukman started this journey she had never been to the United States before and didn’t know Salem County, N.J., from Salem, Mass., or Salem, Ore. She just knew she wanted to come to the States to study aerospace engineering, which isn’t offered in her country, and continue playing softball while doing it.
She put together a professional-looking prospect package and shopped it to numerous schools. She drew interest from five schools and spoke seriously with three – Salem, NAIA Avila (Mo.) University and JUCO Morton (Ill.) College – but felt most comfortable after her interaction with Oaks coach Angel Rodriguez.
She’s the first international player Rodriguez has ever had on any level. Most of the other international students on the Carneys Point campus are on the soccer team.
No, he didn’t get all the way to South Africa to recruit her. A lot of videos, e-mails, text messages and zoom meetings replaced the traditional on-site scouting, face-to-face contact and in-home visits.
He said the process of recruiting an international prospect was “fun to go through,” educational and a little self-reflective.
“We get a couple different e-mails each month and this one just kind came across and the most important thing that stuck out was the video was definitely personalized,” Rodriguez said. “Her and her family did some research … so the fact they were very proactive with it showed she was definitely interested and all in.
“I definitely think we got lucky with a really good one and I couldn’t be happier.”
The Oaks have a truly All-America softball team as it is with players from 11 different states – from New Jersey and Delaware, of course, to Utah and Idaho and everywhere in between (Texas, Indiana, Wisconsin, Colorado, Maryland, North Carolina and Missouri) – so Beukman fit right in with this merry band of travelers.
They took a bunch of players to the airport to greet her when she first arrived. By the time they left the baggage carousel they were connecting as if they’d known each other the last three months.
It’s no gimmick she’s here. Beukman was a decorated school and club utility infielder back in South Africa and had tools Rodriguez could work with. She made several provincial teams that are the U.S. equivalent to all-state and even made a national team slated for international competition before COVID intervened.
She’s played in 12 games for the Oaks so far, mostly in the outfield, with a .350 batting average, seven hits and three RBIs. She went 3-for-4 with a triple and two RBIs in the Oaks’ 11-10 win over Northampton last Sunday.
There are some parts of American life she finds fascinating. Like the open front yards that welcome an approach to the front door and the self-checkout line at Walmart or the way restaurants spread table assignments among their servers. In her neighborhood, all the yards are fenced, there is no self-checkout in stores and a savvy waiter or waitress can scarf up all the tables if they’re quick enough to greet the diners at the door.
“The self-checkout thing, I love it, I absolutely love it; mind-boggling,” she said. “This is easy, why don’t we have that?
“Another thing I found very different is how restaurants work. Waiters or waitresses get scheduled tables. Where I’m from, I actually work in the industry. We used to stand by the door and if someone comes in and you say ‘hi’ first that’s your waiter. You can have all the tables in there and everyone else doesn’t have anything. You need to fight for some customers.”
She hasn’t been to Atlantic City, any of the shore points or New York City since she’s been here. But she has been to Boston and drove through Washington and Baltimore on the team’s season-opening trip to the Carolinas.
Being so far away has made it difficult to get back home, but the players with their shared experience of living away have helped lessen the load. She spent the Christmas holidays with roommate Jill Robinson’s family in Colorado, where she saw snow for the first time, and has a trip to California planned before heading home in May.
It’s been an eye-opening experience for her American teammates, too, especially when it comes to her food choices. Regulations won’t let Buekman bring food with her from home and she admits she misses it “a lot.” Buying it from Amazon is too expensive, so she improvises where she can. The apricot jam and cheese sandwiches have gotten her teammates’ attention and grabbed their taste buds.
By the same token, she has yet to partake in those Philly-area staples like a cheese steak or hoagie, but admits she’d like to try them sometime soon.
“It’s so funny,” shortstop Emma Hayes said. “A lot of the stuff around here she doesn’t have back home, so we spent like three hours at Walmart. Everything she had to stop and look at because she doesn’t have it. That was neat and kind of eye-opening, too, like not everyone has everything we do and vice versa. She just cracks us up. She’s hilarious about everything.”
“I think us Americans fit right in with her,” added third baseman Courtney Hoggard. “She’s part of the team, part of the whole. She’s a great mix into our team.”
Beukman may be the first international player in the program, but she likely won’t be the last. The Oaks are in with an infielder from Australia who could be here next season following the same process they went through to land Beukman.
“We’ll see how it goes,” Rodriguez said. “It’s a case by case basis. If we feel like it’s a good fit, we’re getting good emails and they’re interested in us, we need to see it. We like what we’re seeing, the fact they’re keeping up with us and they’re emailing and texting us throughout the week that’s a good sign.”
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