Athletics bringing the world together

Saint Viator High School is a big family with lots of members. Among the hundreds of its members, there are some who are from different areas of the world. They joined the Viator family for various reasons. However, something similar is that they are all on a Viator sport team. 

I interviewed three international students, Benson, Enmin, and Star, who play sports for Viator about their experience on the team. Benson and Enmin play soccer, and Star plays football. 

Enmin came from Beijing, China. Enmin is a junior, and he likes to play soccer and video games. He joined the soccer team this year. He is currently playing on JV but he believes that he will become better and make varsity his senior year. He enjoys the competition either with other teams or with his own teammates. One of his highlights is he blocked a shot from the opponent’s striker.

Even though Enmin loves the game, he feels challenged whenever there is a game scheduled on a Lion Day because he needs to finish all the assignments for 7 different classes. How he manages the time between the awkward game time is to try to finish as much homework as possible before the game since he gets exhausted after the game.  

Playing soccer helps Enmin with his experience at Viator by making a lot of friends. He gets to see most of his friends, whom he does not interact with everyday during school, everyday because of soccer. Being on the team gives him an opportunity to hang out with friends and improve his English speaking skill.

Star is also from Beijing, China. He is a freshman at Viator and is on the JV football team. He started playing football at the age of 10. Besides football, he also loves movies. He claims he is a big fan of Harry Potter. 

Star enjoys becoming stronger and faster during practice after school. He loves to work hard and bring 100% effort to the game. One of his highlights is he saved the team by recovering a fumble in the last two minutes of the game.

Star hurt his knee and cannot play now; however, he does his best to participate by being at every practice and games to learn the plays. Star is very optimistic about this not-so-delightful situation of his knee. Instead of complaining or giving up, he is happy that he made many friends who helped him to fit in the Viator Family by being on the team.

International students are just like local students. They love to interact with others, play sports, and make new friends. We are blessed to have such a diverse population of international students participating in sports as a part of the Viator family.