Scotch College

Opportunity of a lifetime

WORDS: BEN JACKSON – YEAR 11 Photography: Mr Mark zannoni

Coach Eamonn Beamish ('79) with the Soccer touring party

Seventeen Scotch boys plus two teachers and our coach (Mr Eamonn Beamish ‘79) travelled to Italy with a first stop in Milan.

Then it was on to Genoa to see our first-ever Serie A match between Sampdoria and Lecce. On the second day we toured the San Siro Stadium (home of AC and Inter Milan), and the next day we played the AC Milan junior team, which Milan won 3-0. Then we were off to Padua to play an international school, coming away with a well-deserved 2-1 win. Next we moved on to Venice and then to Florence.

We played another match against the international school of Florence which we won 7-0. We spent the next few days relaxing in Florence, and saw another Serie A match. Pisa was the next stop, on the way to Siena for the last game of the tour against AC Siena junior team. Unfortunately we were defeated 1-0, though the boys played the best game of the tour, and showed what they had learned on tour. We arrived in Rome on a high for the last two days of our tour.

The tour was a tremendous success, thanks to our coach Mr Eamonn Beamish, for coaching us, and to Mr Cavalin for his endless support and comic relief. Most of all, thanks to Mr Zannoni who put a tremendous amount of his time into getting the tour up and running. It was a life-changing experience, one that not very many boys our age would be privileged to go on. GS