A home away from home
Owatonna’s Emilie Storheil runs on the field for the Huskies’ girls’ soccer team. Storheil is a junior midfielder and noted that soccer in the U.S. was not so different from her experience in Europe. Staff photo by Johnnie Phillips
Owatonna High School exchange student and soccer player Emilie Storheil has been living in town since Aug. 9, but it’s not the first time she’s met her host family.
Storheil’s adventures from a small village outside of Trondheim, Norway to the U.S. will see her stay with Ron and Debbie Ensley – the same family that hosted her father, Rainer, 29 years ago.
“It feels safer to travel across the world and actually live with a family that you know. I celebrated Christmas here two years ago in 2023 with my host family… I can’t imagine traveling halfway around the world to stay with a family that you don’t know. I’m super thankful to the Ensley family for having me,” said Storheil.
While Storheil will have the same hosts as her father, her experience will be quite different.
The Ensley family was previously living in Indiana when hosting Storheil’s father, meaning the junior will have a unique American experience of her own.
According to Storheil, the transition to life in the states has been made easier by her joining the soccer team.
“The night after I came here, like the second day, two of the girls from the soccer team came over and took me out for ice cream. That was really nice… It all started very quickly with tryouts, but it’s been really fun since I’ve been here,” she said.
According to her, the play style hasn’t changed much for her between the two continents.
“There are some small differences, but in the end, soccer is soccer. It’s pretty similar,” said Storheil with a laugh.
She joins a solid Owatonna girls’ soccer team as a junior midfielder in a system where the middle of the field is where games are won and lost.
According to her, her play style is more defensive with an emphasis on shutting down opposing threatst while distributing the ball.
Storheil said she has enjoyed the games, but what has been truly different is the travel.
“It’s really interesting because that’s also different from back home. We don’t do bus rides, we always just go by ourself to the games. I think the bus rides are really important for bonding, plus it’s fun to just travel around. When you’re here for just one year, you want to experience as much as possible,” she said.
However, soccer is just the cherry on top for what she hopes to be a really fun year making friends and enjoying life in Owatonna.
“We’ve made a couple trips to The Blast because we don’t have anything like it back home,” said Storheil with a laugh. “But other than that, I’d also say it’s really the people here that I’m enjoying most. Everyone I’ve met has been so welcoming and nice.”
