Blue and White Steel

Damien David is quiet, but you wouldn't know it if you saw him on the dance floor.

He was born fewer than 400 miles from Buffalo, but English is not his first language. David - a member of the men's tennis team - is a native of Montreal, Quebec, where the official language of the province is French. Language created a barrier between David and the people he met in the United States when he moved here for college.

Dancing, however, allows David to have a good time without having to speak in his second language or worry about people not understanding him. He breaks out of his quiet persona when he and his teammates go to parties and clubs to dance, often making the 'Blue Steel' pose from the movie Zoolander while he dances.

"I won't talk that much because in the beginning people didn't understand me anyway, so why would I talk if people don't get me? Dancing, there's no talking," David said.

The dance floor is not the only place David shines. His skills are also on display on the tennis court as UB's No. 1 singles player. David, a junior, has overcome the language barrier and the adjustment of living in a foreign country to help lead the Bulls (9-5, 0-1 Mid-American Conference) to a No. 59 ranking in the country this season.

Jason Shkodnik, a senior on the men's tennis team and one of David's roommates, thinks one of the biggest adjustments David has made since coming to the United States is learning to eat different foods, like macaroni and cheese.

"It's cheap," David said. "It's 33 cents a pack and four bucks for 12 meals, so why not? Here, I don't have meat and s*** so I cannot cook some good food so I have to go with the mac and cheese."

Another one of David's adjustments coming from Canada to America has been learning to speak English. David only spoke French growing up in Montreal; he only took a few English classes in school.

David had long planned to attend college in the United States and had considered going to Michigan State and Arkansas, according to head coach Lee Nickell.

David came to UB because he liked the environment and the people. When he first came to Buffalo, he could not speak English fluently and struggled to communicate with his teammates.

David also had trouble understanding his professors, which made doing well in class difficult.

"My first class was sociology. That killed me," David said. "I didn't know anything that was going on. That was difficult, but if you go to math classes, it was very easy. It was just the talking classes that were hard."

David says his situation was easier because so many players on the tennis team are international students - currently seven of the nine players on the Bulls are from outside the United States. David's last roommate was from Russia, and although they both were struggling to adapt to English, they could understand each other.

Shkodnik said his squad goes everywhere together and many of them love to dance.

"I just like to have fun," David said. "You go out, you go party, you just have fun with the boys and then whatever happens afterward happens. It doesn't matter. Just go with the flow of the music."

The tradition of doing the Blue Steel in clubs was started when the Bulls watched Zoolander during a road trip earlier this season. David and the Bulls often make the Blue Steel pose while dancing in the club. The pose - done by Ben Stiller's male model character Derek Zoolander - involves tilting your head back, squinting your eyes and pouting your lips.

"Damien kind of thinks of himself as the pretty boy on the team," said sophomore Akhil Mehta, one of David's teammates. "So we make fun of him a little bit like that to get him to do the Zoolander male model face and he loves to do it."

David has overcome the language barrier. He talks with a thick French accent but can speak English fluently now. Mehta is from Canada as well, and he knew David from national tournaments before they were teammates at UB. When Mehta arrived in Buffalo last year, he was shocked by David's improvement in English.

"It's crazy. The guy didn't know a word of English, like whatsoever," Mehta said. "I remember talking to him at nationals and you could not have a conversation with the guy whatsoever ... When I came here last year, I was surprised to know how much English he knows now. He has the accent but it's improved so much ... He's definitely worked on it a lot."

David's improvement has shown in the classroom, as well.

"He had some struggles right at the beginning," Nickell said. "He's overcome them, he's worked hard on them and now he's got a 3.6 [GPA] in engineering so you can tell his English has gotten a lot better just in terms of how he's such a smart young man that now he's doing so well in engineering."

David is a civil engineering major and wants to design bridges and other structures. Shkodnik said David is constantly studying. Shkodnik also noted that he couldn't use enough "very's" to describe how competitive David is, whether it's on the court or playing video games.

"Even when I play [Call of Duty] with my mom, I want to win," David said. "I'm just very competitive. Let's say I'm losing, I don't want to lose. I'm going to try my best to fight back."

David's competitive nature has brought him success on the court. He set the program record for most wins in a season (25) and was named to the All-MAC first team as a freshman. David's other biggest strength is his backhand.

His teammates and Nickell praised his backhand shot, and David described his backhand as a "counterattack." Nickell said David sees things better than most players, and Mehta praised David's physical conditioning.

"He's willing to hit 50 balls to win a point," Mehta said. "He's tremendously fit and in shape. He'll win matches where he'll simply tire the other guy down. He makes you earn every point you get against him."

David embraces his role as the No. 1 singles player and as a part of the Bulls' No. 1 doubles team with Mehta. The pressure of being the Bulls' top player in the rotation does not faze him.

"I don't feel there is a pressure because a win is a win whether you play six, one or three," David said. "Your win is still going to count the same. I just try to concentrate and win my match. I feel the No. 6 and No. 5 have the same amount of pressure as No. 1."

Being a top player hasn't gone to David's head either.

"Being a top guy on our team, he has a lot of respect for everyone on the team," Shkodnik said. "A lot of guys at different colleges who are top guys, usually they think they're so good that they don't want to be a part of the guys. He's very supportive; he's always willing to help. The thing about Damien is that he's very humble."

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