Lehigh University Athletics
Lehigh goes international
10/1/2009 12:00:00 AM | Women's Golf
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Livia Amado speaks five languages. She also maintains a 3.0 GPA, works two jobs and plays for the Lehigh women’s golf team, with a +1.5 handicap. Currently a senior, Amado transferred from the University of Tulsa as a sophomore. After half her team left, Amado decided she wanted to focus on her studies and despite the full golf scholarship she received from Tulsa, she landed at Lehigh.
Coach Roger Simpkins says that Amado is unbelievably talented and is playing better and better since she has arrived.
“She’s the anchor of the team. All the girls know that with Livia on the team, they have a chance of winning. They can depend on her to shoot a low score every time,” Simpkins said.
Amado has seen great success while at Lehigh. In both the ‘07-‘08 and ‘08-’09 seasons she was named Women’s Golf Athlete of the Year. Last semester, she was named to the Dean’s List, an impressive feat considering the women’s golf team practices almost every afternoon and travels for tournaments on many weekends from Friday to Sunday.
Additionally, unlike most sports, the golf team’s season spans most of the year. Play occurs from September through October with the conclusion at the Lehigh Invitational. The season then starts up again in March and runs through April.
Amado enjoys playing at Lehigh, saying “We play at a very good country club and have the right balance with athletics and academics; you can be the best at both, you don’t have to sacrifice one or the other.”
Born in Lisbon and raised in Spain – where she learned to golf, Amado moved to Brazil at the age of 15. She is the epitome of an international student.
It is only fitting that Amado will return to South America in November to represent her home country in the South American Team Matchplay Championship - Copa Los Andes in Paraguay.
“It is the most prestigious amateur tournament in South America,” Amado explains. “It is the top five men and top five women from each country in South America chosen to represent their country,” she said.
Amado was modest about her being named to the team, mentioning that although it’s the best amateurs in the country, they’re all still amateurs. Amado will be making her first appearance in the tournament after politics prevented her from representing Brazil in 2004.
“So now, five years later, I’m back,” she said.
Teammate Ginette Schapira is one of two freshmen to make the five-member traveling team for Lehigh, Simpkins said, and is also participating in the South American Team Matches as a representative of her native Uruguay.
“Like Livia, Ginette speaks three languages and as a freshman, she’s going to be flying to Paraguay too, so that’s exciting to have two Lehigh players representing their country in the biggest, most prestigious tournament in South America,” Simpkins said.
“How prestigious? Put it this way, Argentinean Angel Cabrera has played in this event. The great players who dominate the tour have represented their countries in this tournament.”
Amado met Schapira five years ago when they played together in a South American tournament in Venezuela. “I have already played against her so when I heard she was coming here, it was awesome,” Amado said.
“She’s the best player we have and she’s been particularly helpful for me because she’s from Brazil and I’m from Uruguay so we have a lot of things in common,” Schapira explained. “She’s been very helpful even when I was applying and deciding where to go. She was one of the reasons why I wanted to come.”
In terms of this upcoming tournament, Amado expects that they will be cordial, considering they are still teammates at Lehigh.
“It’s happened before where teammates from other universities have to go and play against each other. It’s fine – we’ll have a great time,” Schapira said.
When Amado graduates in May, one might expect that she’d pursue a career in golf, but she insists she would rather work saying, “I want to have something safer than playing to buy my own food.”
For now, though, Amado is enjoying playing on the Lehigh women’s golf team, “We’re all fun, we’re all very enthusiastic people. When we travel together it’s always something different. We get along great between ourselves and with our coach, too. We can pretty much be ourselves. We’re loud. We have a lot of fun.”
Simpkins, specifically, is impressed with all that Amado does, even off the course. She attended a NATO summit in Lisbon, Portugal two summers ago and had the honor of leading the procession. Additionally, Amado traveled to Honduras to assist Lehigh’s Engineers Without Borders to teach the locals how to use the new water system they had installed. Her achievements off the golf course only add to her impressive resume.
Simpkins credits Lehigh’s expansion of the Global Initiative and its welcoming of more international students to the example set by students like Amado, “these are the kinds of people that make Lehigh a better place,” he said.
Amado, Schapira and the rest of the Mountain Hawks return to action on October 3 when they travel to Williamsburg, Virginia to compete at the 2009 ECAC Championship. The team will play 18 holes on Saturday and another 18 on Sunday at Kiskiack Golf Club with each day beginning at 8:00 AM.
Story written by Rachel Sachs ‘10
