THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, September 15, 1994 TAG: 9409140174
SECTION: SUFFOLK SUN PAGE: 26 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY JOHN GORDON, SUN SPORTS EDITOR
LENGTH: Medium: 61 lines
Any similarity between the Lakeland-Nansemond River football game and anything that Kathrin Parschat and Nina Klemola had seen before was purely coincidental.
Parschat, a senior, is from Dresden, Germany, and Klemola, a junior, is from Helsinki, Finland. They are two of six foreign exchange students at Lakeland High this year, and the game played at Cavalier Park last Friday night was their first encounter with an American football game.
The band, cheerleaders, crowd and everyone's enthusiasm impressed them. Even the Cavaliers' horse mascot made their first game seem very glamorous.
``The only thing I'm disappointed in is our team,'' Parschat said with a slight accent.
``It's amazing how much practice everyone - the band, cheerleaders and football team - put into it,'' Klemola said. ``The team spirit is really great.''
Back in their native countries, there is not so much attention given to high school athletics. Sports like soccer, tennis and volleyball are big in Germany and ice hockey and skiing are the major Finnish sports.
``Sports are not a big deal at home,'' Klemola said. ``No one really cares about school sports unless they are happening during school and we can get out of class.''
``Our schools concentrate more on academics,'' Parschat said. ``Sports are more separated from schools.''
Both agreed that they had never seen so many people at a school sports event as the capacity crowd that attended the season opener for both teams.
``I've never seen as many people,'' Klemola said. ``Not even our graduations are this popular.''
Although it was their first week at Lakeland, they quickly learned that the first game was going to be against archrival Nansemond River. And if there were any doubt, they definitely got the message at the pep rally that afternoon.
Naturally, they were a little lost at what was happening on the football field. They sat together and there wasn't anyone around to explain the rules or any of the strategy.
``It is difficult to keep up with what's happening,'' Parschat admitted. ``It was more interesting to watch the people because I didn't know the rules and because all of this is new to me.''
Klemola was a bit of a people watcher, too, but one of the things that amazed her was the crowd's keen interest in the game.
``The people didn't sit around and talk,'' she said. ``They concentrated on what's going on.''
After all was said and done, Parschat and Klemola thought that the experience was fun and said they would try to attend some more games this season. ILLUSTRATION: Staff photo by MICHAEL KESTNER
Exchange students Nina Klemola of Finland, left, and Kathrin
Parschat of Germany watch Nansemond River at Lakeland High. It was
their first football game.
by CNB