Four young 麻豆社国产soccer players will get a unique opportunity to play the game they love and travel throughout Italy at the end of the month with the Genova International School of Soccer.
Keenan Cartwright, Zach Gebhart, Connor Richards and Keenan Bir are scheduled to join the overseas school for two weeks from Oct. 31 to Nov. 12.
In the meantime, the four are doing all they can to raise money to help fund the trip.
This past Sunday (Sept. 26), the quartet was at the Garibaldi Highlands 7-11 washing cars. The boys are understandably excited about playing in Italy.
"I think it's going to be awesome," said Cartwright, a centre/midfielder. "Playing in Italy is going to mean a lot to us."
"We think it will be a great experience," said goalkeeper Zach Gebhart, noting that all four players have future aspirations in the sport.
"It's a once in a lifetime opportunity," said Richards. "It's going to be a lot of fun but lots of hard work."
Keenan's brother, Taran Bir attended a similar camp this summer and told his brother that the way Italians approach soccer is much different than Canada.
"He told me it was really hard and you do a lot of training," said Bir.
"Soccer is their life and it will be ours too when we get there."
The boys' whole life will consist of soccer for those two weeks as they will be pulled out of school and be practicing the game for eight hours a day.
They will also travel throughout the country, taking on club teams from all over Italy including Chievo, Citadella, Padova, Verona, Vicenza and Inter Milan.
"We're happy to be out of school but it's probably a good thing we'll only miss two weeks," admitted Richards.
Jenney Cartwright, Keenan's mother, said her son has become consumed by making himself ready for the trip.
"He's playing or practicing soccer four days a week, he runs with me on Mondays and Friday, and he even built a net in our backyard out of PVC pipes to practice," she said.
Jenney will not be making the trip to Italy and admitted that she will miss her son dearly.
"I'm going to have to work through dealing with missing him," she said. "But this is his dream, he wants to get a scholarship and play soccer in university and this experience should help him out."
The trip doesn't come cheap as each family had to shell out $5,000, which is why the fundraising is so important. The boys cleaned over 20 cars on Sunday (Sept. 26), contributing $300 to their cause, but noted that there is another event to help the families out.
The Grizzly Pub will be hosting a fundraising event on Thursday, Oct. 7 with proceeds going to the trip. Tickets are $10 and include a beer and burger. There will also be a 50/50 draw at the event, which takes place from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m.
Cartwright added that the group will also be taking donations at the pub night.
