George Andrew lives the American Dream

OFF TO THE STATES: Gisborne’s George Andrew, pictured playing for Eastern Suburbs in the National Youth League, is heading to Arizona on a four-year soccer scholarship at Grand Canyon University. Picture supplied

FORMER Gisborne Boys’ High School footballer and Team Gisborne centreback George Andrew is off to the United States in January after signing a four-year football scholarship with Grand Canyon University in Phoenix, Arizona.

“I got confirmation two weeks ago and got my visa on Thursday, so it’s starting to sink in now,” said the 18-year-old who has just completed a season helping Eastern Surburbs to third in the National Youth League.

“I can’t wait to go over. We start pre-season training early January, even though we don’t play Conference competition games until July.

“The football (soccer) head coach, Schellas Hyndman, wants me over early so that I get a full pre-season training programme in.

“It’s exciting. Grand Canyon, who play in Division One, livestream all their games so I’ve been able to watch them. It looks pretty physical but I don’t mind that.”

Andrew played for Gisborne Boys’ High School, during which time he also played for Team Gisborne, who won the Pacific Premiership.

“I was actually thinking of going to Napier Boys’ High to further my football career as a lot of our senior players were leaving and I was keen to keep on playing for the Hawke’s Bay youth team,” said the Tottenham Hotspurs supporter.

“Thomas Edge (Team Gisborne coach) told me to hold on and he would talk to Chris Zoricich, who was the head coach of Saint Kentigern in Auckland and a former All White. I was playing for the Hawke’s Bay youth team against Auckland that weekend and after the game Chris said he was keen for me to come to St Kents.

Time at St Kents“I really enjoyed my time with St Kents. Chris is a hard but honest coach and being a defender, I learned a lot from him.

“He spoke to a man call Amit Rai, who is like an agent for American universities. He sent some video clips of me playing for St Kents to something like 200 universities and about two months later I started getting replies . . . not too many from universities with a football team in Division One.

“But when I saw the one from Grand Canyon (20,000 students on campus and 70,000 online), I knew that was the one for me.

“Grand Canyon ticked three important boxes for me — location, academically and athletically.

“The weather is great and it’s a short flight from Los Angeles. Academically, Grand Canyon offer me the degree I want to study — a Bachelor of Science, specialising in exercise science. Athletically, the university has great new facilities, with amazing coaches.

“Between the time Grand Canyon first expressed an interest and final confirmation, they wanted full videos of me playing . . . not just clips of my good play. I was nervous that they might not like what they saw but they did.”

Andrew said the competition consisted of teams playing in conferences. At the end of the season there was a draft system like the NBA, where the weakest teams in Major League Soccer got the pick of the top players in the university draft and so on until the teams had the players they want.

“That would be the ultimate dream —complete my degree and then get picked in the (MSL) draft system. But realistically that’s not going to happen for a few years. I’m not getting carried away — there’s a lot of hard work ahead of me over the next four years — but it’s a great opportunity.”

Andrew, the son of Gisborne couple Peter and Belinda Andrew, laughed when asked about homesickness.

“I’ve lived in Auckland for the past two years . . . I think I’ll be Ok and my family can come over for a holiday.”