Signing for the Wellington Phoenix Football Academy has prompted a potential young star’s family to move cities for his chance at the big time.
Article courtesy of the Dominion Post.
Article courtesy of the Dominion Post.
Signing for the Wellington Phoenix Football Academy has prompted a potential young star’s family to move cities for his chance at the big time.
Jake Williams, 13, his parents and younger brother and sister all moved from Nelson after Williams was selected. He is attending Scots College, which this year began hosting the academy’s training base.
There are 21 footballers aged between 12 and 16 at the academy, of whom 17 are enrolled at the college.
Headmaster Graeme Yule said the attraction of hosting the academy was the holistic approach to the boys playing top-level sport while also receiving a quality education.
They do not play for Scots College but participate in school life in every other way.
“Very few that go through the academy will make it to the top level, so there has to be an off-ramp. It would be irresponsible not to have that.”
The boys knew that if their schoolwork was not up to scratch, they would not get to play, and that was appealing for a headmaster, Yule said.
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