Finding your dream

Well super exciting week for our family this week. Last weekend saw our nephew make his way onto the hallowed turf of Hindmarsh Stadium as part of the Baby Red's - Adelaide United's Youth Team!! Check out the link on this page to find out more about the Baby Red's and our favourite "Baby Red"!

Oh we were so much the excited Uncle, Auntie and cousins - so much so that when the 2 senior players dropped from the A side took to the pitch at the outset, it all took all our self control not to jump the fence and give them what for!! But alas part of the new youth league is that up to 3 senior players can play down in the youth league while regaining form or recovering from injury : -(





This poor guy was probably only in his early 20's but to us he was an "old dude" taking up the space our nephew should have been in! In true mature responsible adult fashion we all had a great time coming up with comments shared just between us of course not for general consumption.





BUT the rules also say that each youth player must play for 30 minutes, so with 30 to go, the announcer spoke those magic words "Substitution of Adelaide United, coming off is (blank) and coming on his place is Michael Doyle" - at which point I could do nothing but yell and scream like banshee from the top row of the stands right under the scoreboard!!! My poor kids were looking for the concrete stand to split wide open and swallow them whole but hey they are used to me by now!





Michael has had a soccer ball at his feet almost every waking hour from the time he could walk. His Dad played and coached soccer and so has always been very happy spending time with Michael and a soccer ball from a very tender age.





We have all watched him progress through the various competitions, almost always playing well above his age level because of his abilities.





Every time he went to Hindmarsh to watch a game he dreamt of the day that maybe he would be on that pitch as a player, not just a spectator in the stands.





Last Saturday he did just that and realised his dream!





This is only the beginning for this talented young man and we are so proud of him! So happy too that all the years of sacrifices, of hours spent working on physical fitness, ball skills and still spending enough time on his studies to complete year 12 and start on a TAFE course as well, he has finally taken that big step to be part of the Adelaide United family.





He is also just a really lovely young man and untainted by his successes, we watch eagerly on to see what the next chapter of finding his dream will hold.