Congratulations to Year 11 student, Dane Schnell and Year 12 student, Reuben Clark who have both been named by New Zealand Football in the 16-man squad to contest the U-17 Aspire Tri-Series in Qatar at the end of next week from May 22-29. They will be playing two international matches against Croatia and Qatar in preparation for the FIFA U-17 World Cup in Chile in October.

Mid-fielder, Dane was selected from his club, Western Springs AFC while Goal Keeper, Reuben was selected from Onehunga Sports. Both boys are stalwarts of the College Premier Boys’ Football team.

Head Coach of the squad, Mr Danny Hay is unable to travel and so the side will be led in Qatar by Saint Kentigern Football coach, Chris Zoricich, with College Head of Social Studies, Adam Bannister as Goalkeeper Coach.

Mr Hay said that the group will be tested in both fixtures with Croatia and Qatar. ‘They are going to be incredibly challenging games. The players will arrive, play two quick games in succession - Croatia on May 26 and hosts Qatar on May 27 - and then get on a plane and head back home again. So that in itself is going to be very difficult and then have the quality of the opposition to contend with. I think it’s going to be a real test for our boys as this will be the first time that they are really going to see some top quality international opposition and I guess it will give them a little bit of an eye opener as to what they’ve got to expect when they get to Chile.’

Mr Hay continued, ‘At this stage of the team’s development, performance is going to be more important than result. While the two generally go hand in hand, the focus is about implementing the style of play in a real setting against world class opposition.’

We congratulate both boys on their selection to this prestigious side and wish them all the best for their international competition next week.

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