Imagine coming from a school with no team sports, no dress code, where someone doing drugs is shocking and where you can’t drive until you’re 18. This is an example of the culture shock experienced by Philipp Wiedling (pronounced Viedling), a 16-year-old foreign-exchange student from Germany.

One of the biggest changes for Wiedling was getting to play high school (American) football. “I didn’t know what it was, so I asked (Head Coach Jason) Tice about it,” Wiedling said.

He went into the first practice not even knowing how to play football, “I thought it would be brutal,” he said. “It was pretty exhausting, but I liked it.”

Another surprise for Wiedling at his first practice was getting tackled by senior Casey Warnock. “I got tackled pretty hard,” he said. “It hurt, but it was fun with pads on.”

When asked about his thoughts on the recent school shootings, Wiedling said, “They don’t worry me. In Germany, not that many people have guns because we don’t hunt, so we don’t shoot people.”

Dress code is also an American concept according to Wiedling. “You can wear whatever you want to school, as long as you don’t come naked,” he said with a smile.

Wiedling plans to finish out the Savage football season and also plans to play boys’ basketball in the winter.