Sports : Female foreign exchange student in Viking uniform plays football

Senior Night, for high school sports teams, is often a chance to honor players for contributions to the team that may not show up on the scoreboard or stat sheets. It's an opportunity to recognize the effort a player brings to practice and the way that player inspires others by their loyalty, determination and desire. This is a story about one of those seniors. Introduced to the crowd during Friday's Senior Night, the player whom other Vikings call Ralu walked beside coach Jim Womochil. One of the remarkable things about this story is that Ralu came to Vinton from a place that doesn't even have football. Ralu had never played or even seen football – other than in the movies – until about two months ago. And yet, there was Ralu, part of the team, who has spent time in both practice and games playing halfback and linebacker – walking with the coach, joined by a long line of players who have been learning the game for years. Oh, and have we mentioned that Ralu is the only female on this year's Vinton-Shellsburg football team? Ralu – Raluca Macovei – is a foreign exchange student from Romania. Hosted by the Mauer family, with host parents David and Rosa Mauer and host sibling and classmate Sadie, Ralu says she joined the football team the day she arrived at Vinton-Shellsburg. She calls her time as a Viking "amazing." “I really like it and I’m pretty sad that the season is almost over," she says. "I like being part of this team. I couldn’t have made it without these awesome guys. I couldn't have more respect and appreciation for them.” Though introduced with the seniors (as all foreign exchange students are), Ralu has been practicing and playing with the freshman-sophomore team. “My football experience is amazing,” she said. “I think it’s something important for anyone and for an exchange student it’s even more important. It made my whole American experience unique. I’ve been down on the field since my first day here and can’t believe how fast the time passed.” Knowing her only football experience before August was from watching movies in Romania, Ralu expected to be a constant student of the game, and she has. “It was hard and it's still hard,” says Ralu. “I knew nothing about this sport at the beginning. So I have to be honest, it was hard and it’s still hard. This whole journey is hard when you start it knowing nothing about plays, rules and how things work, but it’s worth it.” Ralu describes her very limited knowledge of football before joining the Vikings: “I knew about NFL but I haven’t ever watched a game at home. We don’t have football in Romania so that’s why all I knew before was from movies. In general, I like sports and I love being around them. I felt like I really wanted to play football, to challenge myself with a completely new experience that can change my year in America. Team sports are the best. You don’t just get a team, you get a family out there on the field.” And she says, yes, she is glad she made Viking football her first choice. “If someone would ask me to choose again the fall season sport I want to play, I’d say football again without hesitation,” she says. Also, she adds, the other players and coaches have been very encouraging. “My teammates, along with the coaches, have helped me a lot throughout the season and I am thankful that I had the chance to be part of Vinton-Shellsburg's football team.” Freshman-sophomore coach Anthony Church says that Ralu shows him and her teammates the kind of character she has every day at practice and games. “Raluca is an interesting person to have on the team,” says her coach. “She had never played football before and had spent very little time watching the game. With a sport as complicated as football, sometimes picking up on the in's and out's can be very difficult for young and inexperienced players. Raluca came with a worker's attitude everyday of practice. Although she is still growing every day she has developed into a legitimate player. She contributes something to the team outside of X's and O's. She brings a tough attitude in practice and games. She never takes a play off or shows up with a bad attitude. That a sign of her character and who she is as a person.” Ralu says her favorite football moment was helping to get the team's first win vs. Oelwein. It was also the game where she got to play halfback, and attempted to score on a 2-point conversion run after a Viking touchdown. [caption id="attachment_25075" align="alignright" width="300"] VS senior football players including Raluca Macovei join captains for the pre-game coin toss on Friday.[/caption] “Unfortunately I was tackled before I could get in the end zone,” she says. While playing defense, Ralu has made tackles in both games and practices. “It seemed pretty unusual at the beginning, until I got used to them,” she says. Saying she is sad that her first and only football season is over, Ralu is looking forward to playing Vikette basketball this winter, and to spending the spring playing the game she originally called “football” – she will join the Vikette soccer team. Ralu also enjoys sharing her Romanian life with her local host family,and has even cooked a traditional Romanian meal for them. "It’s a really interesting experience to have someone from another country living with us," says Sadie Mauer. "We have learned a lot about what she does at home." But this week, her focus is on the game with the pointed ball, and she hopes all VS fans will follow the team to Benton this Friday for the final game of the season. “I'd like people to come to Benton Friday and support our team," she says. "It’s the last game and we want to end the season successfully.”