When you play Blue Dolphins, they’re still there – right in front of the screen, if you ever find time. Games on Saturday evenings at 7 p.m., such as this weekend, usually fit well into Lisa Kiefer’s daily routine. “It’s 11 a.m. for me, training or games are late,” said the 19-year-old, who has been living in the States, more specifically in Missoula, Montana, for just over half a year and playing basketball — and also feels good. There after you get used to it.
For years, the young German athlete tells OP, she toyed with the idea of moving to the States for a while, speaking a different language in daily life, and learning to play her sport there. “It was an idea that was floating around in my head.” Then, for the past year, I decided, “I’ll do it!” I explored several possibilities. “I didn’t want to go to America, come to hell or high water,” she says. It must be appropriate. After speaking to the head coach of the current college team, and doing some research online about the University of Montana and the city of Missoula, “I felt really good.” In mid-August, she flew “over” – two weeks before the start of training.
With the season off to a good start, “Mrs. Grays” is at the top of their group in Division I, the highest in the college system. Says Lisa Kiefer, who has only played a few minutes on average so far, but more regularly than she did at the start of the season.
“There was a little time before it started,” she says later. “Everything was new, I had to get used to it first.” That was “very difficult”, especially because she also had certain problems initially on the basketball floor: she was initially placed under the basket, which was not her role in Germany. It has to hold its ground in training against strong players out there. “It was frustrating at times,” Lisa Kiefer says publicly. She also had to come to terms with three hour training sessions and many different interpretations of the rules.
She is happy with encouragement from her teammates, including coaches: “Your support has helped me a lot.” It was also nice to be able to play more freely, to be used on the wing. However, she does want to get better under the basket — and not just there: “I’m also working on my throw and while going to the basket.” In the meantime, she has a feeling that she is progressing.
Her days are often tightly defined: three times a week sports training in the morning, then studying, then training later, and then studying again. It suits her that she only has two face-to-face courses this semester, the rest online. “That way I don’t miss a lot of things when we’re away.” The team usually travels by plane for away matches, and matches are usually held on Thursdays and Saturdays. “If it’s convenient, we travel to the first place, then to the second in between matches and back again,” explains the 19-year-old, who shares a room in a student dormitory on campus with a colleague from Greece.
First you want to stay in Missoula for a year. The small town in the northwest of the United States has a population similar to Marburg, it is also located on a river and is also distinguished by the university of about 15,000 students – in Marburg there are about 10,000 more. “There are some similarities, but there are also many differences,” Lisa Kiefer says. The city is also located among the mountains – “but these are real mountains, much higher.” Other than that, there are a lot of things “how you imagine America to be,” she says, citing an example: “The streets are wider and the cars are bigger than they are in Germany.” The epidemic is less visible in everyday life: “At the university you have to wear a mask, but not in the shops, for example.”
She wants to decide in the next few months how things will go for her in the summer. Although she tends to stay longer: she can “imagine” her earning a degree in the United States. One idea is to deepen your studies in Europe and continue playing basketball there. Maybe back in Marburg? “It’s definitely not at all out of the question.”
Written by Stephen Weisbrod
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