IN A DIFFERENT WORLD
Teams benefit from foreign exchange
With an ocean separating her from home, Thea Bergseth is adjusting to a new country, new school and a second language.
When she joined Hagerty’s girls soccer team, the foreign-exchange student from Oslo, Norway, realized not everything has changed.
“My old team, they used to call me Banana as well,” said Bergseth, who quickly earned the nickname by eating the fruit before and after every practice. “I thought it was funny.”
The self- described shy senior struggled to adjust after arriving in the United States, but she has found a home in midfield for the Huskies. She is expected to start in Hagerty’s season opener against Winter Springs at 7 tonight.
Foreign- exchange students playing soccer in the Sentinel’s coverage area is rare but not uncommon. Italian Nicole Gravellino will play for Daytona Beach Father Lopez.
Bergseth’s host parents, John and Donna Painter, had a Brazilian player stay with them a few years ago. They have hosted 12 foreign students as part of an independent program.
“It’s a positive thing to get involved in the school’s sports, because it’s a very natural way to meet people,” John Painter said. “It’s definitely an icebreaker.”
It’s more than that for Gravellino. She’ll likely never play again after leaving the U.S.
“It’s mostly a boys game in Italy. It’s not a girls sport,” said Gravellino, a junior who plays basketball back home. “It’s always been my dream, to be honest. It’s my favorite sport ever.”
She just didn’t know that dream included sore thigh muscles from running around a field more than three times the length of a basketball court.
Or teaching her teammateshowtosay “meatball’’ in Italian.
“One day I was doing an exercise, and they called, ‘Ball!’ and I said, ‘You want a ball or a meatball?’” she said laughing.
Mix-ups are common on the field for both girls, who are learning English. Al- though mostly fluent, they have not mastered several slang terms and phrases.
“She speaks English very well, but I found myself having to explain . . . what it means to ‘run to space,’” Father Lopez coach Paul Beaudoin said.
While learning, Bergseth also teaches her teammates some basics in Norwegian.
“She’s quiet, but I can see that she’s been accepted by the girls,” Hagerty coach Angie Densberger said. “She reminds us that there’s a world outside of here.”
Bergseth, who has been playing soccer since the age of 7, hopes traveling outside Norway will attract the at- tention of college scouts. Her father played for Florida International.
“I have left everything I knew, my family and my friends, to get over here,” Bergseth said. “I was a little scared, but everyone said it was the mostamazingexperience they ever had.”
Including her cousin, Mia, who stayed with the Painters as a foreign-exchange student five years ago.
“She told me I should be open to getting to know new people, and that it was one of the best years of her life,’’ Bergseth said.
“I want to be more confident, figure out who I am and become more outgoing.
With a name like Banana, it shouldn’t take long.