Vietnamese exchange students dons football pads for Mountain Cats
Vietnamese exchange student Duy Boi played junior varsity football for the Clark Fork Mountain Cats this season. The 17-year-old student said he adapted quickly to the sport and also to American lifestyle. (Chuck Bandel)
One minute you’re in Ho Chi Minh City (formerly Saigon), a metropolis of nearly 9 million people and 7,716 miles from your destination. Hours later you are in Alberton, Montana, a scenic town of 417 residents according to 2016 census data.
Culture shock, jet lag, new foods, hamburgers instead of rice dishes and a completely different language?
Perhaps most shocking of all, an American sport you have never seen before. Sensory overload to the max.
But for Alberton High School foreign exchange student Duy Boi (pronounced “Dewey Bewey”), the adjustment was simple… adapt and take it all in.
That’s just what the 17-year-old from Vietnam has done, including donning the pads and hitting the playing field as a junior varsity player on the Clark Fork
Mountain Cat football team.
“It (football) is a very intense game,” Boi said. “I really liked how the crowd would roar every time there was a long run. It’s very exciting to be part of.”
Prior to arriving in Alberton this past September, Boi had not only never played American football, he had never seen even a single play.
But that didn’t deter Boi, who said he feels he picked up the basics of the game very quickly.
“I’m not really sure what position I played,” he said. “I just blocked a lot.”
But following the recently completed JV season, he said he feels he “learned the game very quickly. After two weeks I think I understood the basics of the
game. I like playing and learning new sports.”
He said he also plans to participate in basketball and track and field while he’s here.
Boi has also adapted to the American lifestyle, including new foods.
“In Vietnam most of the dishes are rice based with lots of vegetables,” he said. “Many things are very different here, but I’ve found I like hamburgers the best.”
The education systems in the two countries are also very different, according to Boi.
“In Vietnam studies are very intense and very hard. Being a junior here is like 7th grade in Vietnam,” he said. “There are many new studies here.”
Among those new forms of education in America are business and publications classes.
He said he plans to come back to the USA for his senior year, then would like to attend college at Harvard.
“I really like America,” he said. “The people are very friendly here.”