Enrique Montoya’s story is a unique one. Not many high school students decide to leave their home, family and friends to come to America for school.
Montoya, 19-years-old freshman undecided, was born in Spain. He then moved to Germany when he was 3-years-old and there until high school. During his junior year of high school at Cherokee High School in Marlton, New Jersey, Montoya played lacrosse. While playing for Cherokee, his lacrosse career took off. Montoya said he found out about Cabrini through one of the coaches attending his game. He visited last December and got his acceptance letter a few months after the visit.
Montoya started playing lacrosse when he was 13-years-old after he saw someone running around with a lacrosse stick and wondered what it was. In high school he played soccer in the fall, swam in the winter and played lacrosse in the spring.
There were a couple of reasons why Montoya wanted to study in America. “Universities in Germany are mostly theoretical, whereas American universities are known to connect what you learn in the classroom with real world practice,” Montoya said.
Another reason Montoya wanted to come to the United States was to be fluent in more than one language. Since Germany does not have college sports, they play all their sports in clubs in Germany; playing lacrosse at Cabrini helped him make his decision on the school.
Coming to America for school also brings challenges. Enrique’s family still lives in Germany. “It was hard to leave all my friends and family back home and go to a different country, but being part of the lacrosse team has really helped me to make this transition easy,” Montoya said.
“I have never met such a funny and crazy bunch of guys,” Montoya said. Cabrini’s men’s lacrosse team is going for its 12th straight CSAC title this year. It is hard to come into a new team and learn how Cabrini’s team works together. They are a close-knit team and all love the sport. “Enrique really fits in well with our team,” sophomore lacrosse player JoJo Cooper, said.
Montoya has been having a great time at Cabrini so far and is excited for the upcoming lacrosse season.
