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INTERNATIONAL EXPERIENCE
YSU soccer program draws talent from afar
YOUNGSTOWN
This year’s Youngstown State soccer team isn’t just a group of American women who play that other kind of football. There’s been a lot of miles flown to get this team together.
Two American citizens from Germany — freshman midfielder Jessie Gamez and sophomore midfielder Samantha Bidinger — join junior midfielder and Ghana native Ernestina Abambila on the pitch this fall.
For Bidinger, whose father was in the Army and was stationed overseas, this is her first time living in the United States after her first 18 years were spent in The Fatherland.
“I wanted to come to college in America and experience something different,” Bidinger said.
Gamez has without question traveled the most. Her family, also a military one, moved to Germany when she was 11. After a few years, the family was stationed in South Korea before eventually going back to Germany. Now she’s back in this hemisphere playing for the Penguins.
“It’s definitely different playing here as opposed to Europe or South Korea,” Gamez said. “The style of play is a lot different here.
“They’re really technical in Germany, focusing on things like passing and ball control. Over here they’re more focused on speed and aggression.”
While Gamez and Bidinger played with professional teams in Germany (Gamez with TSV Neudorf and Bidinger with SC Regensburg), Abambila has had plenty of big moments of her own.
Abambila was one of the biggest reasons Mississippi Valley State had the nation’s highest scoring offense a year ago. She racked up 14 goals and nine assists and was a no-brainer for first team all-conference.
But bigger than that is her international experience. Abambila was a member of Ghana’s U-17 World Cup team that made it to the quarterfinals in Costa Rica. And she’s been invited to training camp as Ghana prepares for the U-20 World Cup in Papua, New Guinea, later this year.
Abambila scored a last-minute penalty against Italy to send their game to extra time and eventually a penalty shootout but a missed penalty in the shootout was a crushing moment of her international career.
“I missed my penalty and I was crying,” Abambila said.
Abambila, who has aspirations of playing professionally, said Youngstown was a great place to get that off the ground, and is a step up from Mississippi Valley State.
“When I saw the facilities at Youngstown State I wanted to come here,” Abambila said. “Here they treat you well.
“At Mississippi Valley, they don’t have the money for you and if you want to play professionally I felt like I needed to come to a place like Youngstown.”
Gamez is no stranger to big moments of her own. In soccer-crazed Germany, the women’s games were as big of a deal to the local towns they played for as the men’s games.
“Soccer there is kind of a lifestyle,” Gamez said. “It’s a pretty big deal for everyone that lives there.
“We traveled to a bunch of German towns, and we played in a big tournament in the Czech Republic and another one in Spain.
Gamez had the added difficulty of being the only member of the team who didn’t speak German, meaning a lot of mimicking was required to learn at the highest level.
“I had to focus on watching because I couldn’t speak the language,” Gamez said. “That was the biggest obstacle to overcome.”
So how do players get recruited half-a-world away? The short answer is the Internet.
“You have to send a lot of videos and just try to get yourself out there as much as possible,” Bidinger said. “I then got recruited to play at YSU and I also have family here in Ohio so it was appealing to come back here since I’m pretty close to them.”
The Penguins opened up their season with a 1-0 road win at Robert Morris and will play at Central Michigan on Friday. Their home opener will be Sept. 4 at noon against Longwood.