Football: $40k grant sets up dream goal

KICK-START: Former John Paul College student Josh Trewin hopes his time in Canada might lead him to the English Premier League. PHOTO/BEN FRASER 280814BF3

Rotorua's Josh Trewin has scored himself the chance of a lifetime - $40,000 and a trip to Canada to work with some of that country's best football players.

The 22-year-old has been granted a scholarship through the Auckland University of Technology worth $20,000 per year for two years, funded by Canada Soccer and the Canada Sport Institute Pacific.

Next week he'll travel to Vancouver to assist with the strength and conditioning of the Canadian women's team for the 2015 Fifa Women's World Cup, while at the same time working towards his PhD.

Having completed a Bachelor of Sport and Exercise Science with honours at the Waikato Institute of Technology last year, Mr Trewin said he was thrilled to have the opportunity to kick-start his career working among the best of the best.

"It's pretty hard to believe, I mean I'm 22 and going to be working with players in professional and international sports events like the Women's World Cup, which is being held in Canada, and the 2016 Rio Olympics. That's pretty amazing."

"I guess it is a bit like a dream come true, it's just all happened so quickly."

Mr Trewin, a former John Paul College student, said while he was excited about the journey ahead he couldn't help but be a bit nervous about his trip. "There's a lot of expectation and it's going to be a bit of a change, moving from little old New Zealand."

As for the future, Mr Trewin hoped the scholarship would help him land his dream job doing strength and conditioning work with players in the English Premier League or, better yet, with his favourite team, Arsenal.

Mr Trewin, who described himself as "football mad", said undertaking a PhD in sport made sense. "I guess it'll help me get that little bit further and it looks good on my CV, and I just love sport."

He'll be writing a blog, My PhD Journey, at www.jtsphdjourney.

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