Giving country kids an opportunity that is usually hard to come by, the Australiasan Soccer Academy brought an international soccer coach to Mudgee on March 15 to host a soccer clinic for the Graham Boyd Memorial Mudgee Gulgong Wolves team.
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Found of the Australasian Soccer Academy Tony Basha worked closely alongside Mudgee local Graham Boyd before he passed away, having also coached his kids at the academy.
"He use to believe in what we did," Tony said.
When asked why it is important to bring international coaches such as Spanish native Sharaf Ferrando who was in Mudgee last Friday out to the region, Basha said it's got a lot to do with lack of opportunity.
"The country kids don't get anything, it's documented," he said.
They don't get many opportunities so we like to bridge the gap and bring some talented players out for the kids to see.
- Tony Basha
"There's nothing like getting someone like Sharaf to come out and work with the kids to get that experience and exposure to such professionals.
"It's very important that these kids get exposed to professionalism because the country kids get left out a lot.
We want to give something back to the kids because everyone deserves to play the game that they love and get a chance to show someone.
Basha says having clinics out in the regional areas also gives players the opportunity to possibly be scouted.
"If we can find a good player here in Mudgee, why not help them?" he said.
"These kids in football are disadvantaged, they don't get to play in Sydney against a lot of teams and get exposed to top level football so it's always important that we come and show that we care."
There's some good players laying around here but they just don't have the chance.
It is likely the academy will return in the future to host more of these clinics to give country kids a chance to make a career out of playing soccer.
"We're happy to come to Mudgee every year. If they call us next week, we're happy to come out and help," Basha said.