Imagine sitting with your dad, watching A League highlights on SBS presented by your National Training Centre (NTC) coach Craig Foster when your phone rings and it’s ex-socceroo Tony Vidmar.
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It was almost the twilight zone for 14-year-old Malcolm Ward, who is home in Young for the school holidays after finishing his first year with Newington College and the NSW Institute of Sport (NSWIS) in Sydney.
Vidmar, now the director of Australian Institute of Sport (AIS) football, was calling Ward on behalf of Football Federation Australia (FFA) - one Saturday morning before Christmas – offering him a one-year scholarship.
The scholarship, offered earlier than usual for the former Young High School student, allows Ward access into the Under 17s Centre of Excellence at the AIS from February 26, 2014 to March 1, 2015.
“Living the dream or what? Very exciting for us all,” Ward’s father Darryl Ward said.
The news was a welcoming surprise following Ward’s representation last month in the NTC Challenge at the Australian Institute of Sport, Canberra.
At this tournament Ward and his NSW team qualified for the grand final and, despite going down to Victoria, was selected on the All Stars team who then played and defeated our neighbour to the south.
The Centre of Excellence program is set to provide Ward with year-round football, competing in the Canberra NPL, National Youth League and potential international tours and tournaments.
These international tours include the World Cup qualifiers in September this year, with the goal to qualify for the Under 17s World Cup to be held in Chile in 2015.
“This offer places [Ward] in a very special group of people and we look forward to the opportunity to further develop [Ward’s] football in our high performance environment,” said a letter addressed to Ward from FFA.
But in no way will it be an easy road for Ward, who will be required to maintain the standards set by his coaches to keep his scholarship.
He also requires a full medical screening to determine his position in the program, as well as living with local host families as part of FFA’s home stay program.
This means Ward has had to resign from NSWIS and his elite training squad and move to Canberra where he will attend Ginninderra College.
Ginninderra is a secondary college for Year 11 and Year 12 students that’s linked to the AIS, and because Ward will only be in Year 9 this year, they will be recruiting special teachers for him.
“It’s very overwhelming to be honest… I was playing really well at the [NTC] tournament, I wasn’t really expecting this,” Ward said.
“And because I did so well at nationals (in September and October), that’s basically where they spotted me.”
The teenager will be living slightly closer to mum and dad Karen and Darryl, but he won’t be entirely on his own in Canberra as his 18-year-old brother is currently attending the Australian Defence Force Academy.
