And now, 11 years later, that’s still the case as she competes in the Rio Olympics with the Senegal women’s basketball team.
By the time she arrived in Dayton, Rosche — who was born in Senegal to a Senegalese mother and an American dad who worked for an international public health firm — had lived in the African nations of Guinea Bissau, Togo, Mali and Mozambique. She’d also spent much time in South Africa, Burkina Faso and Paris.
She spoke five languages (French, Wolof, Portuguese, English and Creole), had performed as a dancer across Africa and had drawn interest as a model.
She played in 87 games for the Flyers, averaged 2.2 points, 2.2 rebounds and had her most memorable outing her senior year when UD edged Wright State, 59-56, thanks to her perfect night. She had 19 points and set a UD record going 8-for-8 from the floor.
After grad school at UD, she trained as a boxer and then began a pro basketball career, playing in Puerto Rico, Germany, Qatar and now France, where she’s currently with the Avenir Chartres team.
She has come off the bench for Senegal, which is 0-4 in Rio and plays Serbia today.
Rosche is one of three UD athletes to compete in the Olympics over the years. Former basketball standout Mike Sylvester won a silver medal as part of the Italian team at the 1980 Moscow Games.
UD football player Joe Tyler — named the Flyers’ top lineman in 1969 — competed on the two-man and four-man U.S. bobsled teams at the 1980 Winter Games in Lake Placid.
Legendary UD basketball coach Don Donoher was an assistant coach on 1984 American basketball team that won gold, but he didn’t get a medal. None of the coaches did, he said, only the players.
Actually, Tyler was once an Olympic coach, too.
He coached the Jamaican bobsled team that debuted at the 1988 Winter Games in Calgary and became an instant cult hit. The team was later featured in the popular movie “Cool Runnings.”
After UD, Tyler was a U.S. Air Force pilot. Stationed near Lake Placid, N.Y., he discovered bobsledding and joined the Air Force team as a brakeman. He competed in the 1977 and 1979 world championships, and as the 1980 Olympics neared, he was considered one of the strongest men in the sport.
But just before the Games he broke a rib.
Soon after, Washington Redskins quarterback Joe Theismann visited the bobsled camp. Hearing about the injury, he sent Tyler one of his flak jackets to wear.
Tyler finished sixth in the two-man sled at Lake Placid and 13th with the four-man sled.
Donoher actually began his Olympic assignment well before the Games when head coach Bob Knight sent him to Europe to scout the European championships and the players the Americans might face.
The U.S. fielded a talent-laden team of college players, including Michael Jordan, Patrick Ewing, Chris Mullin and Wayman Tisdale.
Charles Barkley was cut from the team.
“That has always been kind of a controversial thing,” Donoher said the other day. “When we had the trials for about 75 players, he was the second-best player according to NBA scout evaluations.
“It’s my recollection that when we came back from mini-camp he wasn’t interested in going on the mission. We were together almost two months that summer.”
As was noted at the time, Knight and Barkley, both strong personalities, didn’t see eye to eye.
John Stockton, Chuck Person and Johnny Dawkins also were cut.
The team didn’t seem to miss them. The U.S. won its eight games by an average of 32.1 points.
“We were the last amateur team ever to win gold,” Donoher said. “The next Olympics in ’88, the U.S. got beaten and that’s when our country said. ‘Enough, we’re going to the pros.’ ”
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