Thaiphi Austria, who has seen action in countless off-island tournaments, will be taking his talents to Angola, Indiana after signing up with Trine University.
On Saipan, he has played for the U19 Tan Holdings Football Club, the Men’s Tan Holdings Football Club, and is still an outside fullback of the NMI National Team.
“I’ve never played in Indiana before,” he told Variety, “but I did some research and watched a couple of videos of my teammates and players from the division and they were pretty good.”
Thaiphi Austria chases after the ball during a training camp. Contributed photo
Austria’s journey to Indiana’s Trine University started when he applied online through the Next College Student Athlete program.
Soon, a coach from Indiana reached out to Austria so he did some research on the team and school.
“After days of talking to the coach I expressed interest in attending the school and playing for its team. I was excited and happy when I was presented this opportunity.”
Trine University is an NCAA Division III school. “I am not sure when will be our first game but all I know is that the preseason will be on the 17th of August and our coaches at Trine have been sending us online workouts to help us get back in shape before preseason,” Austria said.
He is grateful to the NMI and its football association for making him the soccer player that he is today.
“The NMI is a small place where almost everyone knows each other and growing up here makes it much easier to make friends and talk to each other. So I believe a skill that I learned from the NMI would be interacting with people.”
Austria added, “Soccer is a team sport so it is important to communicate with your teammates and because I’m from the NMI, I’ll probably feel comfortable talking to my new teammates at Trine University and building new friendships! I would like to thank my coaches in the NMI, the NMI Football Association, my teammates, friends, family members and everyone who have supported me throughout this journey. I will forever appreciate it.”
