Candace Ince has been in the United States for the better part of three years. The senior on the Syracuse cross country team is familiar with the culture, traditions and customs of a country she still is not comfortable calling home.

Ince was a track star in her birth nation, Trinidad and Tobago, but was asked to run cross country at SU. The transition to American life was especially difficult with the added pressure of a scholarship for a sport she had never played. But she continues to familiarize herself with her sport and her new country while still remaining loyal to her native land.

‘My identity is still very much Trinidadian because my family is still there,’ Ince said.

Ince and her teammates travel to the Spike Shoe Invitational in State College, Pa., on Saturday

The senior has gone home at least once every year and already has noticed a difference in how she is viewed there. Her accent has Americanized slightly, as have her verbal idioms and slang.

‘When I came here I tried very hard not to change who I was by holding on to my accent, but a lot of things have happened that have made me more American,’ Ince said. ‘When I’m here, I’m one person, but when I go back home I have to change my accent-otherwise I’ll get laughed at.’

Even though former head coach Jay Hartshorn drew her to SU, Ince never reached her full potential under the old staff. Hartshorn specialized in track and field, not cross country, and never created the right training program for Ince to learn a new sport. Second-year head coach Chris Fox, the second coach hired by SU athletic director Daryl Gross, changed that.

‘She was under-trained and stepping into more of a Division I work ethic has helped her,’ Fox said. ‘We just work a little harder than the old group.’

Though she doesn’t have any significant accomplishments at Syracuse, Ince attributes much of her success to Fox and the new staff because they have given her ‘the right kind of training’-closer to what she was used to in high school. Fox called her physically stronger because she is running more miles now than ever before.

Ince has adjusted nicely to the long distance running of cross country from the sprinting of track and field. She admits it was a struggle at first but has come to appreciate the differences of the two sports.

‘I love the strategy of the longer races,’ she said. ‘You really have to plan ahead and pace yourself, not just run around the track two times and be finished.’

Although Ince has assimilated into American culture, she knows that to some, she will always be associated with her country first and her running success second. But she embraces the opportunity to represent her country at SU.

Ince is able to bring her experiences, traditions and culture to a group of students who never would have known a thing about Trinidad and Tobago, besides its tie with Sweden in this year’s World Cup.

‘She brings so much with her from her culture,’ said Jillian Kosinski, a junior on the cross country team and Ince’s roommate. ‘The whole team’s favorite things she makes are these special pancakes her mom taught her to make.’

But there are some things she is still trying to get used to. American food-much greasier than the food in her country-was strange at first. Even stranger than the eating habits of Americans are the drinking habits. The drinking age in Trinidad is 18, but is rarely enforced.

‘People at home don’t drink nearly as much as they do here, and I didn’t understand the idea of drinking games,’ she said. ‘I think there is less at home because there is less pressure on people to drink.’

But Ince continues to become more familiar with America-and cross country.

‘I love being associated with my country,’ Ince said. ‘I want people to watch me run and recognize where I’m from because it identifies me.’

Published on September 20, 2006 at 12:00 pm