Freshman soccer player Karlee Deacon isn’t just new to Eastern, she’s new to the United States. 

Deacon, a midfielder for Summer Perala’s Panthers, hails from Kitchener, Ontario, Canada.

She says things are going great, but she has a small problem: no phone.

“The hardest thing is not being able to talk to my friends and family back home because the cell phones and everything doesn’t work here,” Deacon said. “I haven’t had time to go get a new phone. The only way I can talk to my parents is at night, after practice, after classes, after everything. After like, 9:00, all we have contact is like, Skype. That’s probably the hardest.”

Deacon’s adjusting to Eastern well, but with her schedule of class, practice and matches, she rarely gets to go home. 

Luckily for her, she’ll be able to head home for the first time this Thanksgiving break.

“I thought I wouldn’t get to go home until Christmas, but at this school you get a whole week for Thanksgiving, and I was so happy when I found that out,” she said. “I’m going to go home with a teammate because she lives in Detroit, which is about halfway to where I live, so she’s going to drive me there, and my parents are going to pick me up there, so I’m going to go home for Thanksgiving. I’m so excited.”

Deacon found her way to Charleston through head coach Summer Perala, who she met at a soccer camp. 

Deacon said after working with Perala, she liked her coaching style and personality, and when Perala recruited her to join the Panthers, she accepted.

“I was in her group for one of the drills, and she talked to me, asked me all kinds of questions, and the next day, I checked my emails and there was a big email from her,” she said. “Ever since then, we just kind of hit it off, and I really liked her personality and how she coached.”

Deacon still misses parts of home, though. She says she misses her family, friends, and Tim Hortons.

“I miss Tim Horton’s. I used to work there, and I used to go there everyday,” she said.

Deacon’s hometown of Kitchener, where she’ll be heading back to in November, is just outside the city of Stratford, the home of another notable Canadian around her age. 

“Justin Bieber, he’s from Stratford, and I’m from Kitchener, so it’s like a 20 minute drive, so, some of my friends know him, and he actually played soccer.” she said. “One of my good friends played against him, and Selena Gomez was at the game. He’s not that good.”

Dominic Renzetti can be reached at 581-2812 

or dcrenzetti@eiu.edu.