Chinook's Jake Norby chased a football dream to Europe where he is now locked down

As the world of sports is on its head in Montana, many are experiencing a whirlwind of emotions and working hard in hopes that their sports will return to normal at some point, because right now, COVID-19 has turned everything upside down.

And overseas, Chinook native Jake Norby is experiencing his own trials.

Norby gave up his senior season of football with the Montana State University-Northern Lights because he had a professional season lined up in Germany this summer. He was supposed to play for the Cottbus Crayfish of the German Football League, who he signed with in February.

Norby was given a great opportunity, too, considering the GFL has certain guidelines regarding overseas players.

"It's kind of hard to explain the whole process," Norby said. "But basically, each team is only allowed four Americans for each team. You can have two on offense and two on defense, with only two playing at the same time. There's all these German teams here, but there's only four Americans per team."

With that in mind, Norby was one of the American players to sign this season with a team in the GFL. The opportunity does not come often for a Hi-Line athlete and Norby had plans to make his mark for the Crayfish. But now, that opportunity is on pause due to the coronavirus concern across the world.

When it comes to the Cottbus Crayfish, they have been playing since 1993 as part of the GFL. With red and silver as their colors, the Crayfish have been playing against teams like the Berlin Knights, as well as multiple other Berlin squads, for quite some time. The GFL utilizes the style of American football for the game, too.

When it comes to the team, Norby was looking forward to meeting more of his teammates he had not yet met at practice, and that is on hold, as well.

"As far as my team, I haven't met a whole lot of my team, honestly, because we haven't had any practices yet," Norby said. "I've met about 15 teammates and my coaches, obviously. We do group chats and stuff, but right now, they're telling us to stay fit, stay active and make sure we're working out. I'm still receiving my paycheck, so I'm just going to do what I'm doing so far."

Even with coronavirus halting life across the world, Norby was lucky enough to sign back in February with Cottbus. To sign professional overseas is a bit of a task, but a rewarding one, nonetheless. In Norby's case, the process involved a bit of familiarity with a dash of diversity.

Norby explained how he found out about it.

"I still love football and I was looking at all the other opportunities available like transferring, but how it worked out with my schooling, I wasn't going to do that. I knew of this guy named Luke Wildung. He was an 8-man football player growing up. I saw on Instagram he was playing football all over Finland, Norway, Germany and all over Europe. He told me about a website called europlayers.com."

Then Norby detailed why he chose to play in Germany.

"After I created an account and uploaded my highlights and stats, I had coaches reach out to me all the way as far as Cairo, Egypt, and other teams like Hungary and Finland," Norby continued. "Germany was where I wanted to go because the GFL is a pretty good organization. It was also the best contract."

Norby left for Cottbus, Germany, a good while ago, excited to get to play professional football. But as soon as he landed in Berlin many countries shut down borders and banned travel out of the country, leaving Norby stuck overseas till the travel ban is lifted.

Being in a country with cultures you are not used to is a bit of a challenge, and it makes it even more difficult when COVID-19 is running around, too. Despite that, Germany is often a bustling place full of many different activities to do every day. When it comes to American visitors, Germany has a lot of interesting reflections of American culture, too.

But as of now, there is not a lot happening due to the virus, and Norby provided his perspective on Germany. Germany has been one of the hardest hit countries in Europe so far.

"It's not a whole lot really," Norby said. "We're not doing a whole lot since I've got here. We're pretty much on lockdown right now. The laws are no more then two people out in public at one time and only for essential reasons, such as going to grocery stores. I think it's pretty similar to the U.S. right now, but I think Germany is a bit stricter on the number of people. About two weeks ago, they announced they were postponing my football season. On April 15, the GFL and the AFBB, that's when they're going to decide to postpone the season again or continue to have the season."

With the possibility of the season being canceled, Norby gave his thoughts on how it would feel in that outcome, as well.

"It'll suck and it'll hurt," Norby said. "I really put in the risk to put myself out there and I chased a dream across Europe. I wanted to see all these beautiful places it had to offer and I wanted to get a solid experience from football. I was also looking forward to coaching the youth here in Cottbus, too. It's a reality that's kind of more and more true every day. That's not saying all my options are completely done, though. I can come back next year. It seems like corona is throwing itself at me in a different way and I'm just rolling with the punches."

From the Chinook Sugarbeeters, to the MSU-Northern Lights and now hoping to play for the Cottbus Crayfish, Norby has made quite the journey over the years. Even with the virus leaving many things at its mercy, Norby keeps pushing forward in hopes his international football dreams become a reality.