Balancing schoolwork and college athletics is hard enough. Adding a marriage into the mix may seem impossible.

But for men’s soccer player Jason Guehler, nothing is impossible. Guehler juggles the role of a college soccer athlete along with the role of a husband every day. Though things get busy, he is glad to have his wife by his side.

The freshman sat down with the Northern Star to talk about his move from Texas, the support he gets from his wife and the nerve-racking proposal he made in front of thousands.

Northern Star: You moved here all the way from Texas. Is life in Illinois any different from the one you were used to?

Jason Guehler: Well, it’s a little bit chillier here. I have been up here before to visit family, but it’s definitely a weather change. And the surroundings around here are a lot friendlier than the town I was at.

NS: You moved here with your wife Kelsie. Was she excited to make the move to watch you pursue soccer?

JG: Yeah, she was. She was very supportive. She said wherever I go for soccer that she would follow, so it made the choice a little easier for me. She’s always coming out supporting me and watching my games. She comes to everything she can.

NS: She made the trip to Oklahoma this past weekend to see NIU top No. 2 SMU. Was that exciting for you?

JG: I actually did not know she was doing that. She decided Thursday that she was going to make the trip down to go see her family because they were watching me play. I saw her up in the stands at the beginning of the game and it shocked me. I didn’t think she would do it because it’s a 10 hour trip down. But she did it.

NS: That’s a great surprise. Would you say that she’s one of your biggest fans?

JG: She definitely is. She’s a friend to me, along with so many different things, but she’s always the first person to tell me I did a good job.

NS: Would you say it’s hard to balance the roles between husband and a student athlete?

JG: It’s kind of hard. I’ve got to go to my classes, and drop her off at her classes. Since we live far away from campus she can’t just walk here. And of course I have my athletics. I have to go to practices and games. It gets busy during the day but I always have a couple hours to relax and sit back.

NS: Going back to your time in Texas, you had planned to ask Kelsie to marry you back in high school. How did you propose?

JG: (laughs) It’s very weird. She was a cheerleader in high school and so it was the summer going into our senior year. She was at a cheerleading camp at SMU, and she was inside the stadium and just finished her camp.

I walked down on the floor where they had just performed and just started talking to her. Then I got down on one knee and one cheerleader screamed proposal. There were like 3,000 people in there and they all turned and it pretty much scared the daylights out of me. But she said yes.

NS: Is planning a wedding as hard as everyone says it is?

JG: For us we decided to get married a year ahead of the wedding day. So we bought small amounts of items and made payments and stuff throughout the year, so it made it easier. But once it gets close to the wedding you have to set everything up, so it does get very hard and time consuming.

NS: What was your favorite part of your wedding day?

JG: My favorite part was when they opened the doors and I first saw her in her wedding dress. It definitely caught me off guard because she looked tremendous. Just seeing her and being in that moment was very, very exciting for me.