Two Wairarapa youngsters have taken a big step towards fulfilling their dream of representing New Zealand on the international football stage.
Emily Morison, 13, and Liam Hare, 14, have been accepted into the National Talent Centre where they will receive specialised tuition from some of the country's highest-profile coaches ata series of training camps, the first of them in the Hutt over Easter weekend.
Morison and Hare were two of a number of Wairarapa juniors nominated from this region's own talent centre for the NTC and they are the very first from there to have been given the final nod.
Their selection was labelled a "huge thrill" by Capital Football's development officer for Wairarapa, Juan Propato, not only for the two players themselves but for Wairarapa football as a whole.
"You often hear people say that the better players from here have to go to the bigger centres to make something like the NTC, that there isn't a pathway for them from places like the Wairarapa," said Propato.
"Hopefully this shows that isn't true, that if they are good enough and keen enough they'll make it no matter where they come from."
Propato has no doubts both Morison and Hare have the potential to play for New Zealand at age group level in the not-too-distant future.
"They are very promising, they have good skills and the will to go all the way. Obviously there is a lot of hard work in front of them but I don't think that will worry them either."
Propato said Morison, who generally plays at striker, is an attacking player never afraid to run the ball at the defence.
"She has the knack of going around defenders easily, she is always prepared to have them on," he said, adding that Morison was rated among the top three female players selected for this year's NTC.
Hare is a versatile midfielder who has shown the ability to shine on both attack and defence. "He is a good thinker, he can usually be relied on to make the right decisions at the right time," Propato said of him.
