By Rebecca Nordquist
 
Ben Hallock studied French in college. As a newly signed center on Italian water polo team Pro Recco in September, he wished he had studied Spanish. The similarities between the languages would have given him an advantage. "The first couple of weeks in the pool, people were telling me to 'go' and 'come back,' and I was looking at them with a blank stare," Hallock recalls from his apartment in Recco, a small community on the northern coast of Italy.
 
The 23-year-old quickly learned those commands: vai (go), torno (return), and others like senza, which, in water-polo speak, means "don't foul." Learning the numbers also was crucial for calling plays and different defenses. If the coach was yelling otto (eight) or undici (11) or ventuno (21), then Hallock needed to know what to do.
 
Thankfully, he says, with lots of repetition and some help from English-speaking teammates, it's gotten a lot easier.
 
Hallock isn't the only U.S. Men's National Team player taking a crash course in a foreign language. There are 18 others spread across Europe: 12 in Greece, two in Italy, two in Croatia, one in Hungary, and one in Montenegro. It's the largest number of players in the team's history playing abroad; there are typically no more than 10 players doing so at any one time. Three other players—Alex Obert on VK Jug in Croatia and Max Irving and Hannes Daube, both on Olympiacos in Greece—are competing in Champions League, the sport's highest competition.
 
The mass exodus occurred six months after the coronavirus pandemic locked down the U.S. in March 2020 and postponed the Tokyo Olympics. And for players like Hallock, Obert, and Dylan Woodhead, the pandemic gave them no choice but to adapt. It also gave them unexpected experiences in new countries with new cultures and new languages.
 
Leading up to 2020, players were training to make the Olympic team. Hallock had one more year of eligibility at Stanford University and would finish up his economics degree on campus with a minor in management science and engineering. Obert—an eight-year veteran on the U.S. Men's National Team—was going to retire after Tokyo, settle down with his wife, Michele, in Arizona, and start business school. Woodhead planned to finish his mechanical engineering degree at Stanford in the winter and then apply to graduate school.
 
"The pandemic really changed everything for me and for our team," Woodhead notes. Instead, he signed with ANO Glyfada in Greece.
 
Woodhead's mantra of late? Don't plan—prepare.
 
"There are so many mental lessons trying to train through this pandemic," he says these days. "I only concern myself with things I can control—and that's training and improving."
 
Woodhead was days away from turning 22 years old when he arrived in Glyfada, a suburb of Athens—and like many of his U.S. teammates, this was his first experience playing abroad for a pro team. Woodhead says he's fortunate that he fell into a great situation at ANO Glyfada. "My team is just so nice and happy," he says. "It's the people who make it, so I'm just soaking up all of the experiences I can."
 
Every day during the fall, Woodhead drove by a surf spot called Vouliagmeni, and every day there were no waves. But that changed when the winter storms rolled in, and the swell picked up. Sometimes he would see about 50 surfers. Woodhead doesn't consider himself much of a surfer, but he couldn't pass up the chance to go with a teammate. "We went out and surfed for an hour, and the sun was setting," he remembers, noting that he grew up swimming in the ocean in the Bay Area. "There isn't a better feeling than being able to surf where you weren't expecting it. [These experiences are] all cherries on top. When you view things like that, you have so much fun."
 
He does miss a few things from home, however: A clothes dryer (he hang-dries all of his clothes and sheets), the food ("I really miss good burritos"), and being around friends and family ("I do a lot of calls"). To fight the feeling of isolation, Woodhead thinks about his goals and why he's in Greece—and makes lists: "I'm a big list person. When I write everything down, usually that helps relieve stress and calms me."
 
Obert, who competed at the 2016 Olympics, can relate to missing home. Since he and his wife started dating as students at the University of the Pacific in 2011, they've been apart almost more than they've been together. To prepare for Tokyo the first time around, Obert moved to Greece to play for the pro team Hydraikos, and Michele started an internal medicine residency in Tucson, Arizona. "It's always been six months [away] then three months [together], six months, three months, but yeah, we've gotten good at it," Obert says.
 
So when the opportunity came up for Obert to play in Croatia, the couple did what they do best: They adapted. Just one more year apart, they said. Obert packed up for the coastal town of Dubrovnik, a tourist destination where most people speak English, and started a virtual MBA dual-degree program with a master's in finance. He got straight A's last semester. "COVID was tough," he says. "It pushed my whole plan back a year, but it opened up some other doors, which I'll be thankful for forever. There's always a silver lining."
 
That silver lining for him is playing for one of the best clubs in the world and competing in the Champions League. With Tokyo on the horizon, his goal is to bring the Croatians' style of play to the U.S. National Team. "They play very smart," says Obert, who, at 29 years old, is the second-oldest on the U.S. team. "It's a more defensive style where they're always either coming back into the zone or splitting, and it's all moving as a team, and you're always reacting to someone around you; you're not just doing one thing. We're already starting to do that on the National Team, and I've got a head start because I've been here so long."
 
Another aspect of the Croatians' style that Obert admires is their calmness during big games. "As Americans, we get really emotional, and then we come back down, and then really emotional, and then come back down," he says. "Staying calm and level the entire game is definitely something I want to bring back."
 
Competing with VK Jug in the Champions League also gives Obert a chance to see some of his U.S. teammates. As of early March, Pro Recco is in first place in Group A with Obert and VK Jug six points behind in second. Irving, Daube and Olympiacos sit five points further down the standings in third place. The Champions League runs through June, and the games are streamed online.
 
Hallock says the confidence they're gaining will be a key in developing the National Team for Tokyo and beyond. "You see [the international competition] every single day, and you play against them so much, it builds confidence," he says. "And then when you come together [as a National Team], that's a pretty powerful thing— having confidence in each other and confidence among players on the team that we're good enough to compete and win."
 
With a two-year pro deal with Pro Recco, Hallock is settling into a new rhythm in Italy. Breakfast at home—usually eggs and sliced pancetta (his makeshift option for bacon)—weights in the morning, practice in the early afternoon, and lunch and dinner (almost always fish or meat and pasta) from the restaurant that sponsors the team. "Every meal here is pasta, twice a day. The amount of carbs is unbelievable," he says. Hallock says he does treat himself to sushi Sunday nights for variety—and to satiate his need for soy sauce.
 
There are still awkward moments with the new language, but nothing that rivals the first weeks after he arrived. Hallock still laughs about the time he stood at a deli counter trying to order spicy chicken wings. "I panicked," he remembers. "I sat there for like 30 seconds with this person asking me things in Italian, knowing that I wasn't speaking Italian but still yelling at me in Italian." Finally, an English speaker translated for Hallock, and he got his spicy chicken wings.
 
But he says it helps to know he's not alone: his U.S. teammates get it, and they, too, are having these types of conversations and experiences all over Europe.

This article appeared in the Spring 2021 issue of SkipShot magazine