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Finns can't play football?
Now that Seppo has done the trailblazing with the Cornhuskers, I fully expect a "Finnish Wave" of Scandinavian ( 
) 320 pound linemen coming over to play ball. The allure of small town Nebraska must be overwhelming.
You still have a chance, Pekka!
) 320 pound linemen coming over to play ball. The allure of small town Nebraska must be overwhelming.You still have a chance, Pekka!
Football-loving Finn lands in the heartland
By RANDY RIGGS
Cox News Service
Friday, August 26, 2005
AUSTIN, Texas — In his native Finland, the sports that inspire the most fervor are soccer and hockey, neither of which could inspire Seppo Evwaraye to get off the couch.
"I was somewhat of a sedentary guy," the 6-foot-5-inch, 320-pound Nebraska offensive lineman explained.
American football was another matter. But for a kid who was born in Finland and spent the first five years of his life in his father's native Nigeria before returning to Scandinavia, the only exposure to the game was as a couch potato who watched occasional Notre Dame contests televised on NBC Europe.
"I'd watch them play Michigan State, Michigan, whoever," Evwaraye said.
That was enough to inspire Evwaraye to want to be slightly less sedentary.
"I always knew I had size and felt like I had pretty good athletic ability," he said. "I wanted to see if I could reach my dreams and play college and maybe professional football. I didn't want to stay home, then 20 or 30 years from now doubt myself and wonder if I'd really had a chance to do it.
"Basically, I wanted to see how far I could go."
Evwaraye wound up going about halfway around the world to a state, much less a town, he knew nothing about. It was a bold move that is paying big dividends for the rebuilding Cornhuskers as Evwaraye prepares for his senior season.
What position Evwaraye will play remains uncertain. Despite three returning starters, including Evwaraye, Nebraska's offensive line is in flux. The big Finn is penciled in at left tackle, but that might change.
Evwaraye says he'll gladly play anywhere. Given his unique background, he's happy to be playing, period.
Other than a few games of flag football in his hometown of Vaasa on the western Finnish coast, Evwaraye's true introduction to the sport didn't come until 1998 when he played on a club team.
"It's a hobby there, a lot more relaxed," he said. "It's a lot of long bus rides and pretty much just older guys having some fun."
Evwaraye got the idea of experiencing his own version of "Coming to America" from his older brother, a foreign exchange student in 1997 in the Seattle area. When Evwaraye began seriously exploring the possibility, a Finnish club coach from Nebraska put him in contact with a family in Laurel, Neb., where he was told he could play football.
He made the move in 1999 for his junior year of high school. His host parents, Jim and Carla Erwin, became his legal guardians along with his mother, Sirpa, who will see her son play in person for the first time when she travels to Lincoln this season for back-to-back games against Iowa State and Texas Tech. Evwaraye's father, Frederick, whom Sirpa met when they were in medical school in Czechoslovakia, died of a heart attack in 1987.
After arriving in Nebraska, it didn't take Evwaraye long to realize he wasn't in Finland anymore.
Unlike coastal Vaasa, the tiny rural town of Laurel is about 550 miles from the nearest big body of water — Lake Michigan on Chicago's shoreline. Located in northeastern Nebraska, Laurel, probably best known as the birthplace of actor James Coburn, has a population of about 980, compared with Vaasa's 57,000.
"That was somewhat of a shock," Evwaraye said with a grin. "You can see everything from the deck of (the Erwin's) house. You can see the school, the football field and the gas station. That's about it."
Jim Erwin, an agronomist, laughs at the "culture shock" Evwaraye experienced in moving in with a family whose home on five acres [2 hectares] is located, basically, "out in the sticks," Erwin said.
The Erwins, who have four children of their own, say Evwaraye has been a model "son" from the moment he first stepped off the airplane in Omaha on an early September night.
"He's a gracious young man," Jim Erwin said. "In high school, he was so much bigger than most of the kids he played against. On the first play of the game, he'd knock the center about five yards into the backfield to show he could dominate, but after that I always wondered if he worried about hurting someone."
Erwin added that his family would "never, ever" host another exchange student because, "We'd never get anybody like Seppo again. We'd always compare anyone else to him, and it wouldn't be fair. We got the one in a lifetime."
Before coming to America, Evwaraye knew nothing about Nebraska, much less Cornhuskers football.
"I didn't have any idea where Nebraska was. When they told me I could go there, I looked it up on the map and I was like, 'Wow, it's right in the middle,' " he said. "I was thinking more like Florida or California.
"I never really heard of Nebraska football, either, until I came over and everybody started telling me how huge it is and that there's nothing like it," he added.
Evwaraye's formal introduction to Cornhuskers football came on Sept. 18, 1999, when his American family made the 137-mile drive south to Lincoln to watch Nebraska hold off Southern Mississippi 20-13.
"That kind of blew me away," he said. "There's nothing in Finland that compares to that experience."
Few Finns have played American football. The first to receive an NCAA scholarship was Sami Porkka, a defensive end at Northern Colorado from 1990-93. The only other whom Evwaraye knows is Michael Quarshie, a defensive end at Columbia now with NFL Europe's Frankfurt Galaxy. Evwaraye is believed to be the only Finn to receive a football scholarship to a Division I-A program.
After graduating, the communications studies major hopes to remain in the United States to play professionally. If he returns to Finland, he'll be required to fullfil a military commitment of eight months to a year that is mandatory for all Finnish males, which Evwaraye said he is willing to do.
But entering his sixth year here, Evwaraye is strongly considering making the U.S. his permanent home.
"It's not that Finland is growing foreign to me, but it has grown different," he said. "My friends and family have kind of gone ahead without me, so every time I go back I have to kind of play catch-up. The U.S. is starting to feel a lot more like home."
Not that he doesn't appreciate Finland on his increasingly rare trips back. Evwaraye can walk the streets of Vaasa in relatively anonymity, unlike in Lincoln.
"It's a break for me because nobody really knows me or knows I play football at a big university," he said. "It's kind of a relief that I don't have to stop and answer questions about the quarterback situation."
Randy Riggs writes for the Austin American-Statesman.
By RANDY RIGGS
Cox News Service
Friday, August 26, 2005
AUSTIN, Texas — In his native Finland, the sports that inspire the most fervor are soccer and hockey, neither of which could inspire Seppo Evwaraye to get off the couch.
"I was somewhat of a sedentary guy," the 6-foot-5-inch, 320-pound Nebraska offensive lineman explained.
American football was another matter. But for a kid who was born in Finland and spent the first five years of his life in his father's native Nigeria before returning to Scandinavia, the only exposure to the game was as a couch potato who watched occasional Notre Dame contests televised on NBC Europe.
"I'd watch them play Michigan State, Michigan, whoever," Evwaraye said.
That was enough to inspire Evwaraye to want to be slightly less sedentary.
"I always knew I had size and felt like I had pretty good athletic ability," he said. "I wanted to see if I could reach my dreams and play college and maybe professional football. I didn't want to stay home, then 20 or 30 years from now doubt myself and wonder if I'd really had a chance to do it.
"Basically, I wanted to see how far I could go."
Evwaraye wound up going about halfway around the world to a state, much less a town, he knew nothing about. It was a bold move that is paying big dividends for the rebuilding Cornhuskers as Evwaraye prepares for his senior season.
What position Evwaraye will play remains uncertain. Despite three returning starters, including Evwaraye, Nebraska's offensive line is in flux. The big Finn is penciled in at left tackle, but that might change.
Evwaraye says he'll gladly play anywhere. Given his unique background, he's happy to be playing, period.
Other than a few games of flag football in his hometown of Vaasa on the western Finnish coast, Evwaraye's true introduction to the sport didn't come until 1998 when he played on a club team.
"It's a hobby there, a lot more relaxed," he said. "It's a lot of long bus rides and pretty much just older guys having some fun."
Evwaraye got the idea of experiencing his own version of "Coming to America" from his older brother, a foreign exchange student in 1997 in the Seattle area. When Evwaraye began seriously exploring the possibility, a Finnish club coach from Nebraska put him in contact with a family in Laurel, Neb., where he was told he could play football.
He made the move in 1999 for his junior year of high school. His host parents, Jim and Carla Erwin, became his legal guardians along with his mother, Sirpa, who will see her son play in person for the first time when she travels to Lincoln this season for back-to-back games against Iowa State and Texas Tech. Evwaraye's father, Frederick, whom Sirpa met when they were in medical school in Czechoslovakia, died of a heart attack in 1987.
After arriving in Nebraska, it didn't take Evwaraye long to realize he wasn't in Finland anymore.
Unlike coastal Vaasa, the tiny rural town of Laurel is about 550 miles from the nearest big body of water — Lake Michigan on Chicago's shoreline. Located in northeastern Nebraska, Laurel, probably best known as the birthplace of actor James Coburn, has a population of about 980, compared with Vaasa's 57,000.
"That was somewhat of a shock," Evwaraye said with a grin. "You can see everything from the deck of (the Erwin's) house. You can see the school, the football field and the gas station. That's about it."
Jim Erwin, an agronomist, laughs at the "culture shock" Evwaraye experienced in moving in with a family whose home on five acres [2 hectares] is located, basically, "out in the sticks," Erwin said.
The Erwins, who have four children of their own, say Evwaraye has been a model "son" from the moment he first stepped off the airplane in Omaha on an early September night.
"He's a gracious young man," Jim Erwin said. "In high school, he was so much bigger than most of the kids he played against. On the first play of the game, he'd knock the center about five yards into the backfield to show he could dominate, but after that I always wondered if he worried about hurting someone."
Erwin added that his family would "never, ever" host another exchange student because, "We'd never get anybody like Seppo again. We'd always compare anyone else to him, and it wouldn't be fair. We got the one in a lifetime."
Before coming to America, Evwaraye knew nothing about Nebraska, much less Cornhuskers football.
"I didn't have any idea where Nebraska was. When they told me I could go there, I looked it up on the map and I was like, 'Wow, it's right in the middle,' " he said. "I was thinking more like Florida or California.
"I never really heard of Nebraska football, either, until I came over and everybody started telling me how huge it is and that there's nothing like it," he added.
Evwaraye's formal introduction to Cornhuskers football came on Sept. 18, 1999, when his American family made the 137-mile drive south to Lincoln to watch Nebraska hold off Southern Mississippi 20-13.
"That kind of blew me away," he said. "There's nothing in Finland that compares to that experience."
Few Finns have played American football. The first to receive an NCAA scholarship was Sami Porkka, a defensive end at Northern Colorado from 1990-93. The only other whom Evwaraye knows is Michael Quarshie, a defensive end at Columbia now with NFL Europe's Frankfurt Galaxy. Evwaraye is believed to be the only Finn to receive a football scholarship to a Division I-A program.
After graduating, the communications studies major hopes to remain in the United States to play professionally. If he returns to Finland, he'll be required to fullfil a military commitment of eight months to a year that is mandatory for all Finnish males, which Evwaraye said he is willing to do.
But entering his sixth year here, Evwaraye is strongly considering making the U.S. his permanent home.
"It's not that Finland is growing foreign to me, but it has grown different," he said. "My friends and family have kind of gone ahead without me, so every time I go back I have to kind of play catch-up. The U.S. is starting to feel a lot more like home."
Not that he doesn't appreciate Finland on his increasingly rare trips back. Evwaraye can walk the streets of Vaasa in relatively anonymity, unlike in Lincoln.
"It's a break for me because nobody really knows me or knows I play football at a big university," he said. "It's kind of a relief that I don't have to stop and answer questions about the quarterback situation."
Randy Riggs writes for the Austin American-Statesman.
.. no matter what, I can't get fast enough these days and I'm too old to become great, even locally. 
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