Senior James Cluskey and freshman Mark Bowtell share a unique bond on the LSU men’s tennis team. Both call Ireland home.Cluskey said it was difficult adjusting to LSU tennis because he didn’t know anyone on the team when he arrived. Bowtell, on the other hand, knew Cluskey from their days in Ireland prior to college.The freshman said Cluskey had a big influence on his decision to come to LSU.”There aren’t that many tennis players in Ireland, only about four or five good players from each age group,” Bowtell said. “You pretty much know everyone a few years older than you, so I knew [Cluskey] pretty well before coming here. When I was looking at colleges, he told me LSU was a pretty good college.”Cluskey came to LSU in 2005 from Belvedere College in Dublin, Ireland. He played on three national championship teams in high school and became the 2004 Under-18 Irish National Champion.Cluskey, a general studies major, decided on LSU during a recruiting trip with his high school coach.”A lot of Irish tennis players will go to college in America,” the Dublin native said. “I talked to [former men’s tennis assistant coach] Mark Booras, and then I ended up talking to Irish guys at home. They said the [Southeastern Conference] is a great conference … We liked the coaches a lot, and it seemed like a good fit.”Cluskey said one of the disparities between tennis in Ireland and LSU is the training regimens.”The biggest difference is it’s a lot more difficult to train in Ireland because of the weather — it rains a lot and it’s cold,” Cluskey said. “Over here, the facility is right beside where we live. In Ireland it’s some of the worst traffic in Europe, and it’s tough traveling, so you spend a lot of time in the car or public transport. It’s a lot easier here when you’re two minutes away from the tennis courts and steps away from the gym.”Bowtell, a Wicklow County native, said the style and pace of American tennis is a lot more enjoyable than in Ireland.”You have hard courts pretty much all over America,” Bowtell said. “The main surface in Ireland is artificial grass, which is ridiculously fast and not much fun to play on at all. So it’s nicer over here to play tennis.”Bowtell plans to major in kinesiology, and he said it was most difficult to adjust to the balance of tennis and studying at LSU. He said in Ireland he never went to school for more than four hours a day at the Institute of Education.”The training was killing me at first,” the freshman said. “Last semester we started weights at 5:30 a.m., did an hour of weights in the morning and then you go from 2 until 5. And then you have to study in the evenings. So you don’t have a lot of free time, which is a big difference.”Both men plan to pursue tennis after college.Cluskey said he is anxious for his senior season to really begin, and he enjoys helping Bowtell prepare for the spring.”It’s my last year, and I’m very excited,” he said. “It’s a different level when you go into the dual matches, and we get to look after the freshmen. I remember my first year, so I kind of know what Mark and Neal [Skupski] are going through. I know they’re excited and ready to go.”—-Contact Rachel Whittaker at [email protected]