John Cascella is an ASU Cronkite School of Journalism student assigned to cover Dobson High School for AZPreps365.com.

Five thousand miles from home, seniors Frida Lovoll and Hannah Volbeda are now members of Dobson’s varsity soccer program. Although they won’t be able to compete in the games due to a visa issue, they still are looking forward to getting the season started. 

The girls are foreign exchange students here for their senior year at Dobson. Lovoll is from Norway and Volbeda is from the Netherlands. Meeting for the first time here, the two have been sisters ever since.

The two both have experience with soccer from back home. Lovoll did soccer from fourth to seventh grade and played handball as well. Hannah grew up watching soccer with her father on Sundays and even played last year. 

Unfortunately, they both won’t be able to play in games this year because they have the F-1 Visa rather than the J-1. Because of this, they’ll be on the sideline with the team for games as the role of team managers. Tryouts for the Lady Mustangs only recently concluded, but the girls knew they would already be making the team.

 Dobson junior Sarah Roberts is to thank for getting them to try out. Roberts already had Animal and Plant Sciences with Volbeda, but got much closer with the two because they were on the same Homecoming-week Powderpuff team. 

Roberts has been with the Dobson varsity girls squad all three of her years now and is excited about the team’s new additions. 

“It’s really great. I really like learning about how different the U.S. is compared to where they live,” Roberts said. “We talk about that all the time.”

Although they won’t be able to play in games, they’ll be able to do all the activities in practice. This didn’t stop them from trying out even though they feared they wouldn’t be able to compete due to the visas, but for the two, it wasn’t about that. 

“We thought it was a great opportunity to make friends,” Volbeda said. 

Despite all this newness, they noted how easy it’s been to gel with the team. 

“The girls are really welcoming to everybody new, so it's no problem really,” Lovoll said.

The team hasn’t had positions assigned yet, but Volbeda has enjoyed playing up front and trying to score the goals. She played in the middle back home as well as defense. Lovoll shared that she’s been enjoying being on defense to start the year.

Ironically enough, Lovoll and Volbeda share the same birthday; Nov. 26, 2002, and are going on a cruise with their host mother to end the month. Unfortunately, that means they might be missing the Mustangs’ first game of the season against the Maricopa Rams, but they should be found on the sidelines cheering after that. 

Soccer likely isn’t the last time the two will play for Dobson. They didn’t play any sports in the fall, but they did mention trying out for tennis in the spring.