Soccer player from Holland adds European flair

September 27,2005
SPORTS
Soccer player from Holland adds European flair

Chris Ramirez
Mesa Legend

One of the newest editions to the No. 3 nationally ranked MCC women’s soccer team, is forward Jarrett DaCunha of Holland.
Just as she’s getting familiar with the college and the United States, take this opportunity to get familiar with her.

Mesa Legend: So how do you like it here?
Jarrett DaCunha: The weather is really hot, but I am getting used to it now, and everybody is so nice here. I have a really great team, great coaches; I’m trying to get used to it now, but today is my birthday, and I’m kind of alone. Overall, everything is great.
ML: So if your parents are back in Holland, who are you staying with? And have you ever been to America before?
JD: No, this is my first time in the states and I’m really excited. I have two roommates from the team, Whitney (Lane) and Amy (Simpson).
ML: So what made you want to come here?
JD: Well, I played soccer for ten years right now and my old team played a game against Metro State College, that’s from Denver, Colorado, and I was planning to go there, but it was a four-year university and it was a little too much as an international student, so Coach (Danny Sanchez) sent me to Darren Toohey (the assistant coach of the MCC women’s soccer team) to meet the coach (Tim Barmettler, of the MCC women’s soccer team), and that’s how I got here.

Editor’s Note: Metro State took a tour to Belgium and the Netherlands in November of 2004 and their head coach, Danny Sanchez, is a former head coach of the men’s and women’s soccer teams at MCC.

ML: So were your other teammates interested in doing the same thing, as in coming here, or is it just something that you’ve always wanted to do?
JD: I’ve always wanted to do this. One girl from the team (in the Netherlands) is doing this, too. She’s coming next year, because she is much too young (to come now) and didn’t graduate yet.
ML: If you always knew you wanted to come to America, was it to go to school and play soccer, or was it to just to live here?
JD: I wanted to play soccer because the possibilities are bigger here. And they do more here, especially for women’s soccer. So for soccer I wanted to come here and for theater. I want to act. That’s my major.
ML: Really? That’s cool. Are you going to be in any of the plays?
JD: I hope so; I’m still working on it. I’m looking for auditions.
ML: So you are going to school here next year? Are you going to stay here?
JD: Yes
ML: And then do you have any ideas where you might be headed off to? Are you going to go play for Metro State? Would you go to ASU if someone offered you a scholarship?
JD: Yes, I think where, what the scholarships bring me because my tuition was very expensive as an international student; so whatever I can get.
ML: When it is all said and done, do you plan to stay here or would you want to go back to Holland?
JD: I sure want to go back to Holland, but I don’t know if I’m going back to stay there, in Holland. Now, if I would say that now, I would say, “Yes,” because I’m homesick, really homesick. But I think I’m going to stay here.
ML: What do you think the biggest difference between here and Holland is?
JD: Everything is huge here. Everything is so big here. And people are extremely nice, sometimes a little too nice. It’s just that when you come into a store, it’s like, “Hi, how are you today? How can I help you?” It’s good, but I’m not used to it, and they ask you, like, every minute. I think it’s annoying.
ML: What part of Holland do you come from?
JD: Amsterdam.
ML: What’s it like? It is nothing like this, is it?
JD: No, not at all. It’s desert here. In Holland it’s really cold. It’s summer now in Holland, but it’s like, if we lucky, 30 degrees. So that’s a big difference, the temperature and weather. And in Holland everything is small.
ML: So your grocery stores and malls aren’t big?
JD: No. And in Holland not everybody has a car, and here everybody can drive when you are 16. In Holland you can drive as soon as you are 18. A lot of people go with the bus there, and you walk to a store or grocery store. Here that’s not possible. You have to get a car.
ML: Is there anything else you do, like any other sports or any other hobbies you have?
JD: Acting – and playing soccer. In Holland I worked in a gym for the Hilton hotel, so I was always already working out. That’s pretty much it; I don’t do any other sports. I was always at the gym.
ML: How did you learn English so well?
JD: In Holland from school. We had English classes. And as I told you, I worked in a gym in the Hilton hotel and I got a lot of tourist that speak English.
ML: Is it normal for the people of Holland to speak English?
JD: Everybody can speak English in Holland; almost everybody. It’s a very tourist place (Amsterdam).
ML: How do you take the stereotypes of Amsterdam because people do all sorts of crazy things? Is that how you view it?
JD: No, I don’t because I was born there, so it’s normal for me. I lived there my whole life. It’s normal.
ML: How do you feel the team is doing so far?
JD: We’re doing a great job. I think we are getting better and better. We’re practicing really hard. And we’ve played five games and we’ve won everything so far (as of Sept. 13).
ML: Did you expect to come over to play with a soccer team this good, or did you have any idea how the team was going to do before you got here?
JD: No, I had no idea.
ML: Do you see the team going to the championship this year? How well do you think the team is going to do?
JD: I think we are getting there. We are pretty good but we have to work because we have pretty tough games coming up. But we are motivated and we believe in ourselves.