LEXINGTON, Ky. (LEX 18) — In their first season, the Lexington Sporting Club professional women’s team has attracted several international players.
Think about what it’s like for these players who travel thousands of miles away and play a sport with teammates they have never met.
“She was a little bit worried about the new culture, the new environment. Also, the playstyle is very much different from home,” Lexington Sporting Club’s Center-Back Nayeong Shin said, through her translator Jennie Ahn.
For Shin, this is her reality. She says that her transition to Lexington has been much smoother than she thought it would be.
“The coach and the team are so nice to her. It has been really easy adjusting to the new environment because of that, and she really appreciates that,” Shin said.
“There was certainly some adaptation, but she is picking up the way we want to play, and it’s becoming part of her game,” said Coach Dickey with the Lexington Sporting Club.
He added that Shin is one of the best technical players on the team.
But in a team sport like soccer, one of the biggest components is communicating with her teammates, which can be difficult when all teammates don’t speak the same language.
As a result, the team uses tricks like Google Translate during game breaks to ensure everyone stays on the same page.
“So that helps out as well, and there are times where we have to draw pictures out and spend a little bit of extra time, maybe after or before practice to kind of help her understand, but more importantly to answer her questions,” added Coach Dickey.
Shin couldn’t thank the program enough for helping her get settled in.
Off the field, they connected her with the Lexington Korean Presbyterian Church. To make sure she had a support group away from home.
“They helped her a lot when she came here for the first time when it came to settling down and everything. So she was very thankful for that, so she invited all of them to come to the match, and they all came out to support her,” she added.
A community coming together to help an athlete find a home in an unfamiliar place.
