Rock Hill’s Zhenya Deller making the most of his American opportunity

There comes a time in almost every football game at any level when the offense stalls in the no-man’s land between the opponent’s 25-yard line and midfield. The coach mulls over the situation, often calling timeout. Punt or go for it… or kick a field goal?

The placekicker just wants an opportunity to show what they can do. Zhenya Deller was thinking the same thing on Sept. 3 as the Rock Hill Bearcats played South Pointe. The Bearcats’ offensive drive had stopped at the Stallions’ 28-yard line with about 3 minutes left in the first half. Rock Hill coach Bubba Pittman glanced at his kicker, Deller.

All he wanted was an opportunity.

“I remember before I kicked the field goal I was nervous,” Deller said, “but feeling good at the same time.

Adoption process

Deller’s first big chance came in the summer of 2012.

He was born in Ukraine but came to stay with Rock Hill couple Mandy and Mike Deller through a Christian-based program called New Horizons for Children, which brings foreign children to the United States for short periods of time with the goal of adoptions.

He was actually the Deller’s second Zhenya. The first, a 13-year old also from Ukraine (Zhenya is a popular name there) stayed with the family in December 2011. Their hearts ached when he returned to his country and they began adoption proceedings. But he ultimately decided to stay in his native land with his father.

The news was devastating. But it sparked a greater desire in the Dellers.

“That’s kinda how it all started,” said Mandy. “We fell in love with the first Zhenya and just knowing the conditions that (the second) would have to go back to, we did not want that for him. So we wanted to offer him the opportunity to come here.”

The second Zhenya lived in a Boyarka, Ukraine orphanage for four years. He was 10 years old when his parents divorced. He lived with his mother, two older siblings, and two nieces, but Deller’s newly single mom could no longer provide for him financially and a program much like American social services sent him away.

Zhenya Deller is originally from a town in Ukraine called Boyarka:

Zhenya Deller - originally Zhenya Gerasimenko - waited two years in the orphanage with caged windows and a rainbow painted over its entrance in hopes of adoption and a better life. Finally, he was selected to come to the United States.

He had a great visit with his host family. They shot fireworks on July 4th, visited the North Carolina mountains on his birthday, and played at the lake. A photo from that summer shows Deller grinning at a baseball game in Atlanta.

“I did want to get adopted,” he said recently. “I did want a new family because I knew that there was nothing that I could do in Ukraine to become a better person, or have a job, have a family, stuff like that.”

There was one catch. After the required paperwork was completed over a four-month span, the Ukrainian government gave the biological parents 10 days to reject the adoption.

“There was a sense of anxiety,” said Mandy Deller. “But we weren’t worried about him because if his parents came forward they would have to prove that they were capable of taking care of him and we knew that they weren’t.”

The Dellers then returned to Ukraine for another two weeks to finalize the process by retrieving Zhenya’s birth certificate, a new visa and a passport saying “Zhenya Deller.”

New life and new influences

Once Deller began his new American life, he didn’t hold back. It took an adjustment period, but the Dellers’ two sons, Jeremy and Justin, accepted Zhenya, and he got involved in the Westminster Catawba Church youth group.

“This kid did not know anybody, he could speak a little English, but, you know, not a ton,” Mandy said. “He just was not afraid. He went on a youth trip and made friends. He is very outgoing and energetic, very friendly.”

The biggest struggle was the language barrier. Not only did he speak a different language, but he used a different alphabet, Cyrillic. Sherri Smith, the English as a Second Language teacher at Rock Hill High School, helped Deller learn his new language.

Smith said it was a huge challenge, like starting from ground zero. But “He wanted to learn how to write and communicate,” she added. “That’s what he wanted to do. He had the motivation.”

Sports assimilation

Playing football and soccer at Rock Hill High helped Deller as much as anything. During his freshman year, a PE teacher asked him if he could kick a football after seeing him play soccer. Deller had never kicked a football in his life.

“He asked me to go out in the field with him and he gave me a couple of footballs to kick and I kicked them. And he said “okay, you’re on varsity.”

The language wall again proved to be an issue.

“To be honest with you, it was very difficult to coach him on our end because the things that we would take for granted that we would say, sometimes he didn’t understand,” Bubba Pittman said.

The coaches would use terms like “onside kick”, “punt” or “squib kick”, and Deller stared blankly. Gradually, supportive teammates and coaches helped him learn the lingo and integrate into his new culture.

“To have a group of guys around him that he can bond with during school and during lunch and those kinds of things, I think it has really been beneficial for him,” said Pittman.

Deller has improved his English writing and expression in Smith’s class, and participating with the soccer and football teams has helped him think on the fly in his new language, and gain 60 pounds. He said he even dreams in English now.

Biological family

Deller has two families that care about him. He still has a relationship with his Gerasimenko family in Ukraine and video chats with them every six to eight weeks. He wants to be informed about family news from his former country, but doesn’t want to go back to that life.

The Dellers try to communicate with Zhenya’s Ukrainian family, but the language boundary is absolute. Most of the time, they will pop their heads up and say “hi” and - through Zhenya translating - make small talk. There is no denying the situation is awkward for both families.

“People tell me all the time, ‘I don’t know how you do it.’” said Mandy. “And it is weird, but it is what it is.”

The Dellers feel very strongly about Zhenya maintaining his relationship with his biological family because it will make him more successful in the United States. Deller hopes to visit his biological parents soon; it has been four years since he has seen them in person.

Looking forward

Back to the Rock Hill-South Pointe game last month; Pittman opted to kick the field goal and Deller headed out onto the field.

The football was snapped and he put his foot through it, and the crowd froze. Cheering filled one half of the stadium. The ball flew through the field goal posts.

Coaches, players and Deller jumped up and bumped shoulders. He had just made a 45-yard field goal.

The young man from Ukraine had been given an opportunity and it paid off. It wasn’t the first time.

He’s taken the opportunities his adoption provided, whether it was learning English and American ways, playing football and soccer, or setting himself up for a college education and the benefits that follow.

“This is the best experience that I could ever have,” Deller said, smiling. “It made my life a lot better than it was earlier. It gave me better choices in life and understand what life is really about.”

This story was originally published October 20, 2016 at 3:19 PM with the headline "Rock Hill’s Zhenya Deller making the most of his American opportunity."