ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1997, Roanoke Times
DATE: Thursday, February 6, 1997 TAG: 9702060019
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-3 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
DATELINE: SHAWSVILLE
SOURCE: RAY COX STAFF WRITER
Upon exchange student Sarah Hasenfratz's arrival at Shawsville High from the largest metropolis in Switzerland last August, all sorts of new challenges awaited.
Learning to play volleyball wasn't one of them.
``She was very well-taught in volleyball when she came here,'' said Mike Naff, who coaches the Shawnees team. ``There is very little I've had to teach her. She has a lot of volleyball talent.''
Talent that has been useful to Shawsville, the small, rural eastern Montgomery County school that won two matches a year ago but since has rounded into form as a Three Rivers District upper-division contender.
It's a brave new world for the Shawnees (13-6 overall, 5-4 in the district), who haven't been used to this sort of prosperity. And it's a whole new ballgame for Hasenfratz, who has never played for a team associated with a school she has attended.
``Where I'm from, all the teams are club teams,'' she said.
Where she's from is completely different than where she is, that's for sure.
``When I first arrived I thought, oh my gosh! This is the smallest town in the world!'' she said.
Adjusting has been one of her specialities.
First, of course, there is the language. Being a clever girl (she already speaks German, French, Italian and her native Swiss-German) she picked up English quickly. The challenge was in trying to remember to use the proper form of the language.
``I use that country slang,'' she said. ``Instead of saying, `We were going,' I've started saying, `We was going.' I know it's wrong, but everybody talks that way here. I don't speak that way in school.''
At this point, you can almost see members of the Shawsville English department clutching their chests, pulling their hair and covering their ears in extremes of anguish. Hasenfratz is sympathetic. She knows what it's like to be upset. She occasionally falls into a similar state at mealtime.
Being a strict vegetarian in cattle country, as she is, finding a dish that didn't at one point walk, swim or fly is a major issue for her. Finding the appropriate fare is not all that easy for the 18-year-old Hasenfratz to do, particularly because she lacks transportation.
Also, there was the matter of all the questions. Although she understood that not all her new schoolmates were as well-versed in world geography as she, some of the inquiries were a little on the dim side.
``Somebody once asked me if we have cars in Switzerland,'' she said, rolling her eyes with a dramatic flourish. ``They wanted to know if we went everywhere by ski. How retarded.''
Speaking of wheels, she discovered very quickly that she wished she had some.
``Living in Shawsville, you must have a car,'' she said. ``Without it, you can't go anywhere. Where I lived in Switzerland, in Winterthur just outside Zurich, it was very easy to get around to go out to parties, to go to the big concerts. Here, I have to depend on other people to do anything.''
Indeed, there has been more for her to learn in her stateside sojourn than can be tallied by an actuary. Fitting in apparently didn't have to be learned, though. That came naturally to her.
``She immediately was taken in by her teammates as both a member of the team and as a friend,'' Naff said.
Quick to smile and with a personal style that at times out-bubbles champagne, Hasenfratz has developed into a key member of the Shawnees' starting rotation. She is a hitter by position, but there is more to her than that. Although she isn't a particularly powerful hitter, she has a versatile array of skills that allow her to be proficient as a hitter, blocker and setter.
Along with fellow seniors Staci Harless and Christi Henson, she is one of the team captains.
``Whenever somebody gets down during a game, she's always the first one to go over to them to get them back up again,'' Naff said. ``She takes it upon herself to help her teammates and show them things she knows.''
If anybody had a reason to be down on occasion, it's Hasenfratz. Being stranded in a strange land and beholden is no fun. Still, her friends and their parents have come to her rescue.
``I don't think she could have played for us if it hadn't been for people willing to take her back and forth from the practices and games,'' Naff said.
Coming to America as an exchange student and landing in a rural small town such as Shawsville may not have suited every European teen-ager who signed up for the international exchange program Hasenfratz did. She appears to have accepted her posting in the proper spirit.
``I wanted to leave home, learn a new language, make new friends,'' she said. ``I've been with my family to vacation in Los Angeles and New York. I've seen that. I wanted to see how people in America really live. I've done that.''
LENGTH: Medium: 94 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: RAY COX/Staff. Sarah Hasenfratz has developed into a keyby CNBmember of the starting rotation of the Shawnee's volleyball team.
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