By JARROD POTTER
FROM baking heat to driving snow, Reece Caldecourt’s start to 2015 has certainly taken him places.
Caldecourt, 17, from Pakenham, was selected for the School Sport Australia (SSA) soccer team, touring Great Britain recently.
The side squared off in 10 games against clubs and schools from England, Wales, Ireland, Northern Ireland and Scotland in the January-February tour.
Caldecourt knew the English soccer conditions better than most of his team mates – having lived in the motherland until he was 11.
It was a strange homecoming of sorts for the Melbourne Victory National Youth League (NYL) as he donned the green-and-gold while facing off against his former countrymen.
“It was quite strange considering everyone was giving me quite a bit of grief about it – ‘playing against your old side Reece you better do well’ and that was about as far as it went,” Caldecourt said.
“Just to play against them (English teams) and get a few results against them felt good.
“Taking in the entire experience – and the superb on-field game.
“It was really good – great experience – just as I thought it would be,” Caldecourt said.
“It was great fun but also a really good challenge against all the good schools – the international school teams to see what the benchmark was like over there compared to here.”
Playing in front of his mum and family was the best of his highlights on the trip as the 17-year-old right back/wing slotted a rare goal to give the Aussies the win against the England Independent Schools.
“When my mum and my little sister and some of the family came up to watch in Harrow against the English Independent Schools, I managed to get a goal for them,” Caldecourt said.
“I was pretty chuffed as I don’t score all that often.”
“Playing in the snow for the first time ever, it was the first time some of the boys had even seen snow, so it was pretty magical.”
After facing Cardiff and Sheffield United’s junior teams, the final match of the tour was also the biggest as the Australians clashed with England Schools.
They managed to take the win and cap off the tour on a high note with the 2-1 win over the home-towners.
With the A League season wrapping up for 2015, Caldecourt’s next challenge will be when the Victory’s NYL team heads into the Victorian National Premier League 1 competition for the first time.
“Just back in to the swing of things with training – back to the grindstone as usual… get a place in the team… training most days to keep the standards high,” Caldecourt said.
“I think our first (NPL1) game is against Springvale White Eagles in a couple of weeks, that will be a good thing to be playing consistently every weekend.”
He wanted to thank his family for getting him over on the tour and his English family overseas for coming to support him.
