Centerville bringing international flair to Treasure State

The Miners are off to another great start to the football season. They’re currently 5-1, and sit in 5th in the 8-man football rankings. They hope to make another playoff run in a few weeks. But the key to the team’s success? Their international visitors. “Every year I’ve been here I’ve had at least one, most of the time I have two,” said Centerville head coach Brian Davison. “This is my 5th year, so these guys are the ninth, tenth, eleventh guys that I’ve had that have been exchange students, so I know what expect.” Peru Cisneros and Kimi Morandi both traveled overseas this summer to join the Miners as foreign exchange students. As you can imagine, it was a big change for the boys. “Firstly, I didn’t know where was Montana,” said Peru, a native of Spain. “I was like, ‘Where’s this?’ So I had to search information and so it was interesting.” “From like when I was a child, I saw a lot of movies about football, and I was like, I want to go for like one year to America,” said his teammate and fellow exchange student Kimi. Peru and Kimi had to adjust to Montana life quickly, and said one of the biggest challenges so far has been the weather. “Two weeks ago the game in the snow, yeah the storm was like, very cold,” said Kimi. “It can sun one day and then another one it can be snowy, so that was pretty different,” added Peru. As if the change in location and weather wasn’t enough, they both had to learn a new sport. “I learned how to play football in two weeks with Grant, my house-brother watching old film from last year,” said Kimi. “It was hard to learn how to play.” However, Davison says they fit right in. “[I’ve been happy with} the roles they’ve been able to take on this team. Peru was able to come in right away and be a kicker for us, which is huge,” he said. “Kimi has finally caught up to how we play and is now starting offensive and defensive lines for us. You know it’s nice when you don’t have a lot of depth - injuries and stuff like that start piling up and these guys are able to come in and contribute.” While it has been different, the boys said they still feel right at home. “They basically treat me as another one,” said Peru. “It was basically making you another one of them like you’ve known them for your whole life.” But, they still miss parts of their homeland. “Yeah the food - just the food,” said Kimi.