By Harry Minium
NORFOLK, Va. – Angie Hind has been in the United States for nearly two decades, but the Old Dominion University women's soccer coach says she will always be homesick for her native Scotland. The pangs for home beat their hardest when she prepares to return to Scotland each Christmas.
"Because we get so much rain in Scotland, everything there is so green and when I see it, I get this big lump in my throat," she said.
"When I fly back to America, I always ball my eyes out. Every time.
"It never gets any easier."
So, Hind understands when her international players – she has seven on her roster this season – tell her when that they are homesick.
"So many international kids, they come here and initially, they're OK," she said. "They're so busy in the fall. But then in the spring things slow down and they get homesick. They don't realize that it's just a tough time they need to get through.
"So many go home and so many regret it. We hear from so many, 'I wish I'd stayed.'"
Carla Morich was one of those international players who left. Morich was an 18-year-old midfielder from Hamburg, Germany who started all 18 games in 2017 and was third in Conference USA with seven assists. She made the all-freshman team and year later, was named to the all-conference third team.
But she is immensely close to her parents, Michael and Martina Morich, and her brother Paul. Her heart ached when she thought of them, so when she went home for Christmas in 2018, she did not return.
Only a handful of players ever return to America after moving home, and ODU is fortunate Morich returned last fall. She started on the team that won the 2021 Conference USA title and came oh-so-close to upsetting No. 1 Duke in the NCAA Tournament.
She is the leading scorer for the Monarch team that takes on Arkansas State Wednesday at noon in the Sun Belt Tournament in Foley, Alabama. ODU needs to win three games this week to return to the NCAA Tournament.
Carla Morich with her parents, Martina and Michael
She says she is so happy she was able to find her way back to Norfolk.
"I went home after a year and a half because I missed my family so much," she said.
"But coming back was the right thing for me."
She took a circuitous route back to Norfolk.
Hamburg is one of the busiest ports in Europe – those Hamburg Süd containers that you see on trains headed to the Norfolk harbor are from her hometown. She quickly got a job working for a logistics firm, a job in which her knowledge of English was a huge help. But after more than a year working behind a computer, she was bored.
"I wanted a job that would allow me to be more active," she said.
Although higher education is largely free in Germany, there is no equivalent of college athletics there. She decided to try to return to America to earn a degree in sport management and again play college soccer.
She enrolled first at the University of Maine and started during the pandemic delayed spring season of 2021, when the Black Bears were winless in just seven games.
Maine did not offer a sport management degree, and it's one of the coldest places in America – her photograph on the Maine women's soccer web site shows her sprinting down the field in a snowstorm. She entered the transfer portal and contacted Hind.
Hind was looking for a forward and as luck would have it, Morich was playing forward at Maine.
Paul and Carla Morich
"It worked out in so many ways when she came back," Hind said.
Morich was still homesick, but she was mature enough to realize, that's part of going to college overseas. When you're done with school, you can return home.
"She is still so very close to her family and they are close to her," Hind said. "Her family comes here quite often."
Soccer is a family sport. Her 62-year-old father, who is a salesman, has played in the same league with friends in Hamburg for three decades. Her mother is a physiotherapist, not unlike a physical therapist in America.
Her brother works in Hamburg and still plays on a soccer team. Carla took up the game at six and continued through high school.
Before graduating from high school, she decided to come to America. She sent her highlights to a recruiting service that caters to American soccer teams. She figured that coming to America would be a good way to get an education and play soccer at a high level.
In a roundabout way, it has been both for her. She graduates in December.
She says the opportunities to work, especially in diverse cities, is so much greater in America than in Germany.
"You can go to the west coast, to San Francisco, or New York or Washington," she said. "There's so much more here than in Germany and I think that's really cool."
But after picking up her sheepskin in December, she's headed home.
"I need to be able to see my family whenever I want to, even for a weekend," she said. "I like America, but I miss my family.
"When I'm home I go play soccer with my dad if we have time. I work out with my mom.
"I love to do things with them."
Including go on vacation – she and her mom go to Berlin at least once a year to vacation. That wouldn't happen if she was in America.
She says she doesn't regret coming to America and said it has changed her for the better.
"The culture is so much different here," she said. "Americans talk to you. They're nicer. When you're out shopping, they say hi to you and ask how you're doing. And in Germany, that's just not happening."
When she goes home, she now talks to people while out shopping and gets strange looks in return. But some surprise her and engage in conversation.
"That's pretty cool," she said.
Hind said that Morich has done far more for ODU than just contribute on the field.
"She's a very selfless individual," Hind said. "She thinks a lot about others. She's always thinking of her teammates first.
"If it's someone's birthday, she's the one who brings balloons and cakes for them. She has a very tender heart."
Morich said she and the other seniors on the team want to go out with two championships, including ODU's first Sun Belt championship in any sport.
"I think we have the opportunity to win because we have a great team," she said. "The conference is very good, but there's not one team (that dominates).
"We have a chance for sure."
More than a chance, Hind added. She wants to return with hardware, even if there's no room in her office for another trophy.
"Our plan after coming back," she said, "is to go to Ikea and get another shelf."
Contact Minium at hminium@odu.edu or follow him on Twitter, Facebook or Instagram
Minium: Carla Morich Left ODU, but Returned and Has Been A Star for Women's Soccer Team
