Chris Blüm: Foreign Exchange Athlete
Imagine playing for the same soccer team with the same teammates for 6 years and then getting uprooted to go to another country. Imagine leaving your family behind in Frankfurt, Germany and going to the United States, with a different language and a new culture. That is Chris Blüm’s situation as a foreign exchange student, on the D.C. Everest soccer team.
Blüm has been playing soccer for 14 years. He played 7 years with TSV Gundheim and 6 years with SV Horchheim. These club teams, which are outside of school, practice four times a week for two hours each practice. The typical school day would start at 8 a.m. and end at 1 p.m. Then soccer practice would go from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m.
So far in the Everest uniform, Blüm has put up good numbers. He has scored 9 goals and has had 4 assists in conference play. However, he really doesn’t care about individual stats.
“The team winning is more important than how well I play on my own. Also, it’s important that the team plays together,” said Blüm.
Blüm says that the team really didn’t start out well, but they have become a pretty good team since then. He even thinks that Everest may have a good enough team to be called the best in the state.
” I think, if we play the best that we can play, we are probably one of the best teams in the state,” said the exchange student. “I think we really improved well.”
Blüm also is quick to give credit to the backups for the team’s success.
” The players who don’t play are very positive, and they show in practice that they want to play and get better.”
“I’m very lucky that I can play on such a great and nice team with these guys,” said Blüm of teammates here at Everest.
For Blüm, it was challenging at first. He had to completely re-learn the style of the team. He had to learn how his teammates at Everest run and how they react to different situations in order for them to play as one unit.
Now that Blüm has figured out how his teammates work his goals are to play well and to go as far as possible with the team. According to Chris Blüm, the Evergreens’ soccer squad will determine their own fate in the playoffs.
Story by Chris Grinstead