Emmie Boese
Lantern Staff
Coming back to the United States was exactly what Isabela Fernandes hoped for in accomplishing her goals.
Fernandes is a freshman business administration major. Starting this spring, Fernandes will play for Butler’s women’s soccer team. Fernandes is from Curitiba, Brazil who transferred this semester to Butler to play soccer and continue her educational career.
This is not her first time coming to the United States. In 2016–2017, Fernandes came to the United Sates as a foreign exchange student during her junior year of high school. She was a foreign exchange student at a high school in a small town called Zwolle, Louisiana.
Even though she enjoyed her experience of being an exchange student, when she arrived in Zwolle, she came to find out that the high school there did not have a soccer team.
“I first was very skeptical about it because they did not have soccer and one of the main reasons, I wanted to do an exchange program was because I kind of wanted to play soccer you know in like an American level,” Fernandes said.
She explained that she ended up playing other sports her first time coming to the United States.
“The first day I was like I don’t know if I want to stay here,” Fernandes said.“…I played basketball before in Brazil, so they had basketball… I played basketball and they had softball.”
Even though she wanted to be an exchange student, so she could come to the United States and play soccer, she was glad that she still had a good experience.
“If I hadn’t have gone to another school, let’s say a bigger school that had soccer, I would have never gotten the experience to play softball, so I had a very unique experience.” Fernandes said.
Fernandes explained that she was still determined to play soccer in the United States, which is where Butler came into play.
“Before I came here, I started playing for this kind of club called Next Academy, and basically what they do is they send people from Brazil to play at a college level in the United States,” Fernandes said.
She explained that she found out about Butler through the NJCAA Rankings around the time the soccer team was at nationals.
“I went to the website, I searched about my major, the campus and the program, and I really liked it, so I sent an email to Coach Hunter saying that I wanted to you go play for you guys,” Fernandes said.
Head Coach Adam Hunter explained the reason his coaching staff decided to bring Fernandes onto the team this semester.
“We brought Isabela at semester because she was ready to enter an American institution in January,” Hunter said. “We also wanted to give her a whole semester to acclimate to a new environment and college soccer.”
The level of soccer that Butler’s program is set to is something she explained she thought would work for her well.
“I did send emails to other schools of course, but I received some other offers, but this one was the best one because obviously the money and also because of the level of the soccer I wanted to play,” Fernandes said.
She explained what her thoughts are on the style of play here, too.
“I believe here people are very technical,” Fernandes said. “I feel like here there are a lot of tactics involved. There it’s a little more individual; there is a little more dribbling. Here is a little bit more off team work.”
Hunter explained the technical skill that Fernandes brings to the game.
“Technical skill and a bit of flare to her play that is expressed by many South American players,” Hunter said. “She is clever and deceptive on the ball.”
Fernandes enjoys it at Butler and the women on the team.
“The girls are really good, and they adapted really quickly,” Fernandes said. “Everyone is doing this together.”
Hunter talked about what impact he thinks new players have on the team.
“I think new players coming in at semester give a sense of new and refreshing to the team,” Hunter said. “New semester and new teammates.”