Stuart's American dream

The 5-year-old kid who booted his ball around Wembley Park has grown up.

Wanganui's Shaan Stuart has obtained the position he coveted, that of a full-time student/athlete, when he accepted a full academic and athletic scholarship to Wheeling Jesuit University in West Virginia this August.

Assisted by the Play Atlantic recruitment agency, the 18-year-old will be joining Wheeling head coach James Regan's programme and play NCAA Division 2 soccer across the United States for the next four years.

Graduating from Wanganui High last year with a 4.0 GPA and respectable 1170 SAT score, the former Wanganui Athletic junior leaves in August for his dream opportunity.

Stuart had switched from Athletic to Wanganui City this season to play at the higher Chatham Cup level. The teenager said when he was considering offers from several American Colleges he was told the current standard he played would be about NCAA Division 3.

Therefore knowing he is going to have to step up when he gets stateside on late August straight into classes on the 26th and a friendly game the day before Stuart said the choice of Wheeling was for both personal and future professional reasons.

Regan had offered good support and as Wheeling is a smaller university, the shy youngster wanted to be in a more intimate country setting where he wouldn't be "treated as just a number".

US News did a ranking of American colleges and Wheeling with just 1000 students was ranked sixth out of 150 in their region.

Stuart said he wanted to avoid the crazy antics that television likes to portray of American campus life, although he did want to experience the culture and could end up with a bit of mixed accent.

"I'll be rooming with an Irish boy, so I might be picking up a bit of that as well."

While the 1.9-metre (6ft 3in) defender will work just as hard in the classroom to make sure his degree will serve as a back-up, his heart is set on a professional career. And that includes an All Whites playing top.

"While you're a student athlete, that is my goal. That's been my goal since I was a boy."

Stuart would like to follow in the footsteps of Ryan Nelsen, who after college played professionally in North America's Major League Soccer before transferring to England's Blackburn Rovers.