Charger Chatter: Carmen Botha

Home Sports Charger Chatter: Carmen Botha
Charger Chatter: Carmen Botha
Sophomore Carmen Botha is a hurdler on the women’s track and field team from Tzaneen, Limpopo, South Africa. (Hillsdale College Athletics | Courtesy)

Q: How did you find Hillsdale?

CB: Basically I just found Hillsdale through a recruiting process and then I really liked the school from what I could see on the website. I didn’t come for a visit or anything. And I thought, “Well this looks like a really cute school and looks like it would suit me.” So I just decided to come here and I really like my decision.

 

Q: What are you looking forward to most this season?

CB: Definitely the outdoor season, doing 400 meter hurdles, and then the 100 meter hurdles because that’s a lot of fun. And I love doing the 4×400 meter relay because that’s with a team and all the pressure is not on you specifically and it’s more spread across the whole team. And it’s kind of more fun because in the beginning you are all stressed together and anxious together.

 

Q: How was the adjustment coming from South Africa to Michigan?

CB: First of all the weather is way different. This is my second real winter ever. Before coming to Hillsdale I had never seen snow before. It snows a lot here and it’s really cold. Last week when we had negatives, people were warning me to not stay outside too long or you’ll get frostbite. That would never happen back home. And then the talking is different. You guys use a lot of different phrases than we do to describe things.

 

Q: What’s something you miss most about home?

CB: Probably all the animals. We have a ton of animals and I grew up on a farm, so we have a lot of dogs and farm animals. And then we also have a game farm which is like a farm of wild animals. So I’m used to being able to see more wild animals and have more pets. That’s one of the things I probably miss the most about home. And obviously I miss my family a lot.