It’s not uncommon for international students to participate in a sport or school activity.
But for Slovak international student Eddie Pajdlhauser, he is breaking the norm, playing two sports during his time at Minnehaha. International students are unable to play varsity sports in Minnesota while here to avoid recruiting violations.
Playing for the boys soccer team during the fall, Pajdlhauser contributed to a strong Redhawks JV soccer squad,
scoring a few key goals in some big Redhawk wins. Pajdlhauser is set to end his time at Minnehaha playing the
first half of the season with the Minnehaha Academy St. Paul boys’ hockey co-op team, before he heads back to Slovakia.
Hockey is one of Slovakia’s most popular sports behind football (soccer). But Pajdlhauser has been playing hockey since his early teen years.
“It was like 5 years ago they built a hockey arena, and so I went to try, and since then I’ve been playing with friends,” said Pajdlhauser.
But being in America marks the first time in a while that he is on a team associated with his school.
“The biggest difference [between America and Slovakia] is that you are playing sports, basically, within the school. [In Slovakia] we are playing sports mostly in clubs. I was playing hockey in the club, and I’m racing for the racing academy.”
The professional sports scene in Slovakia is similar to American sports. Slovakia has professional leagues where teams play each other, as many American teams would in their respective leagues.
“Slovak cities are playing against each other, and it’s basically like here.”
But soccer has the opportunity to make it into European leagues.
“If the teams are better, then they go into the European leagues and compete there. But, like, we have most of the teams [play in Slovakia], so [they] play within Slovakia in some Slovakian leagues.”
Along with soccer and hockey, Eddie is also a racecar driver.
“[Racing] is like my first sport, I’ve been racing since my childhood, I was really close to racing. I grew up watching Cars and Fast and Furious, and then when I was in 5th grade, I started in our town, where we had racing cars and a track. So every day after school, I took some of my friends, and we would just go racing.”
Back home in Slovakia, Pajdlhauser races for Max60 Academy in Bratislava, but hopes to be racing faster cars or even in F1 or NASCAR in the future.
Playing many sports this semester, Pajdlhauser is making the most of his time at Minnehaha. He hopes to experience much more of the American sports culture by attending a Minnesota sports event and partaking in other activities.