Brauen Morris, Noah Larocque, Noah Colbourne and Justin Potvin are heading to Londonderry, Ireland to play in the largest youth soccer tournament in the world as part of the Ottawa Gloucester Hornets Under-17 soccer team. The O’Neill’s Foyle Cup has run for three decades and attracts hundreds of teams from around the world every year, making it a highly competitive tournament.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou have to qualify to even enter,\u201d said Troy Morris, Brauen\u2019s father and member of the coaching staff heading to Ireland. \u201cThey don\u2019t just take anyone. It\u2019s a privilege to be able to go.\u201d<\/p>\n
The four Clarence-Rockland teens joined the Hornets three years back when Rockland\u2019s competitive youth team was unable to field a team and the boys sought higher competition. Now the players will be representing their home town on the international stage, showing European and other international youth clubs that Canadian soccer players can compete with the best of them at the highest levels.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s important we don\u2019t make a bad impression of people from here,\u201d said Colbourne. \u201cWe want to represent our club and Canada well.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is cool to know that being from Rockland, a small town, we are able to go to this big tournament and represent the club.\u201d added Potvin.<\/p>\n
The boys are not ignorant to the chance they are being given to travel abroad and play a sport they love, recognizing they are lucky to participate in something so big.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are really excited, it\u2019s a great opportunity,\u201d said Laroque. \u201cNot everyone gets to go to Europe for a soccer tournament.\u201d<\/p>\n
However, the boys are not free of nerves. The team will be playing with just 12 players and several call-ups from the younger age group, Potvin included. Brauen knows they just need to keep their heads down and work hard for the best possible result.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe chemistry won\u2019t be the same without our whole team there,\u201d said Brauen. \u201cWe just need to play our game and have fun.\u201d<\/p>\n
The tournament runs from July 18 to July 23 with the team of 12 boys heading across the pond on July 14.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Four teens from Rockland and Hammond will be in Europe to take part in a massive week-long youth soccer tournament.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":23930,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[38],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-23929","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sports-loisirs"],"acf":[],"featured_media_global":[],"yoast_head":"\n