At the end of September when the U-20 World Cup qualifiers begin, LHS will have a representative playing in it for the first time.

Senior varsity midfielder Hunter Jewell will be representing the US commonwealth of Saipan, where he lived from age 5 to the beginning of freshman year, in the qualifiers.

“It was a good feeling [being asked], I’ve played with them before in three other tournaments, so I like the opportunity to play overseas and go to places like Thailand,” Jewell said.

He and his dad will take the eight hour flight to Thailand to compete.

“I played with them [Saipan’s soccer team] previously and went to school with them,” Jewell said. “I went and trained with them this summer, so it’ll be good to see them once again.”

Based on the island’s past results, the team will need a miraculous performances to advance to the World Cup, but the feat isn’t impossible, Jewell said.

“We’re huge underdogs,” he said. “The islands are very small…we’ve never really won a lot, so we have a long trip. If we win these qualifiers, then we go to Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, to face even bigger teams like Japan [and] Australia.”

Jewell will miss regular-season games while abroad but Coach Mike Murphy is enthusiastic about his opportunity.

“I am very excited for Hunter with this being such a unique experience,” Murphy said. “I am positive in the future he will look back on it with very fond memories.”

Playing on the World Cup circuit comes with a massive audience. Jewell looks forward not only to representing Saipan but to playing in front of a global audience.

“There should be a pretty good crowd,” he said. “When they played in Nepal in a similar tournament, there were 20,000 people at each game, so since this in Thailand there should be pretty good crowds. I’m just really excited and ready for this great opportunity.”