Edward Vesterinen credits the internet for his start into the game of football.

The Helsinki, Finland product didn’t grow up around the game like so many kids in the states and wasn’t even introduced to it until he was 14-years old.

Almost by complete happenstance.

That’s because while football certainly isn’t popular in his native country, surfing YouTube travels the globe. And one time while on the video website a compilation of big hits came onto his feed.

“I thought it was really cool that people got to do this and hitting hard,” he said.

So, Vesterinen wasted little time looking up his club team in his city and jumping head first into integrating himself in the American sport. The plan was to initially plan for fun but after two years, Vesterinen started playing with the men’s team and his peers started to take notice of his skills.

Eventually he was discovered by Brandon Collier of PPI Recruits, a global group that brings international players to the radar of American colleges. At that camp in his hometown, Vesterinen moved well and displayed agility for his size and that’s how he was able to get on the tour in the United States.

Vesterinen had been quite literally was playing against men overseas as he would square off against 20-30-year olds but he quickly discovered that the game moved faster in America. While he was the Finland Men’s National League Lineman of the Year and all-star in 2019, his trip to America was different.

“My first rep I noticed how fast the ball was snapped and the offensive linemen were more quick and agile,” he said. “The speed of the game I had to adjust to.”

While Vesterinen impressed on the trip and drew interest from several colleges such as Massachusetts another hurdle would come in the form of COVID-19 in 2020. At the time, he was afraid that his dream of playing football in America would be over before it even started due to travel restrictions.

Schools eventually backed off and he was left with little options. So again, Vesterinen turned to the internet in his football story. He would regularly post videos of his film and workouts on twitter, which eventually found its way to the West Virginia coaching staff.

“Kept working hard and during the summer I had more interest which led to me coming here,” he said.

Vesterinen would enroll in January of 2021 and unlike most recruits that arrive on campus he was forced to adjust not only in the uptick in competition with the game but to speaking English and a completely different culture. He helped learn the language while watching movies such as Forest Gump but learning the actual details of football and how to communicate those took more time.

“I didn’t know how much I didn’t know about football so it as hard at the beginning,” he said.

In his first year, Vesterinen played 125 total snaps and recorded 7 tackles. His role grew even further as a sophomore appearing in 252 snaps across all 12 games while recording 10 tackles and a sack.

But now in his third year in America, Vesterinen has not only a better understanding of how to communicate what he’s seeing on the field but how to break things down. He is also expected to step into a larger role on the defensive line given his experience.

“He always played hard but now I think he knows the nuances of the game and he can reciprocate what he’s seeing and what he’s learning back to me and we can have a full football conversation,” defensive line coach AJ Jackson said. “Whereas in the past we’re kind of using sign language, drawing on the board and trying to figure out what we’re saying to each other.”

Vesterinen’s consistency is something that has set him apart and now the IQ is catching up.

“He’s the same every day, he’s consistent, he works extremely hard, he’s got a great motor which is one of the best compliments I can give a defensive lineman,” head coach Neal Brown said. “He’s been really good on special teams for us, he’s coachable. You can go over something in a meeting room and a walk through and he’s going to do it. He doesn’t repeat mistakes.”

His mother has yet to attend a game but watches all of them although they’re typically coming on at around 2 or 3 a.m. local time. And despite the distance from his family, Vesterinen doesn't regret the decision to come to the states to chase the opportunity.

Vesterinen has tried to impart some of his cultural practices on his teammates such as teaching Taurus Simmons his native language, and even picked up some of his own such as enjoying the longer summers and of course BBQ.

He has also spoken to the team about the concept of Sisu at the behest of his position coach after the assistant read about it. It's described as stoic determination, tenacity of purpose, grit, bravery, resilience, and hardiness -- all of which are used to define Finland.

Vesterinen will return to Finland in May for three weeks, but is excited for where the game of football has taken him so far. All off a few clicks on the internet.

And it’s hard to imagine where he’d be without doing that one night.

“It’s hard to say what could have come from that,” he said.

----------

• Talk about it with West Virginia fans on The Blue Lot.

• SUBSCRIBE today to stay up on the latest on Mountaineer sports and recruiting.

• Get all of our WVU videos on YouTube by subscribing to the WVSports.com Channel

• Follow us on Twitter: @WVSportsDotCom, @rivalskeenan

•Like us on Facebook