NSW soccer superstar, Tatch Bollard, is currently holidaying at home during winter break from Trinity Baptist College in the USA.
Tatch began playing football from the age of five after he moved to Australia from Thailand, developing a life-long love of the game.
Tatch shares that his “childhood dream” was to play professional football, but also knew it was important to have an education.
“I found a career path I wanted to take, so therefore I wouldn’t be able to do soccer competitively anymore, or take it overseas,” he said.
“NSR came along, and helped me… pushed me through,” he said.
The soccer sensation claims that he wasn’t sure what he was going into, but has been pleasantly surprised since starting with the Trinity Eagles.
“My first season, we came off and came fourth in the nation, so it was pretty interesting that the team my coach had put together, is a very good team, and is a highly trained and disciplined team,” he said.
Tatch has been attending Trinity Baptist for almost a year now, describing the new college as a “cool” campus, and has loved interacting with Americans.
“It’s funny, American’s very highly respect and idolise Australians. It was a very interesting for me. Some people have never met an Australian before. They’ve heard the accent and all that stuff, but to physically meet someone, it was like their dream came alive! It was cool to be able to experience that,” he said.
Tatch explains that if an athlete is going to embark on an NSR journey, taking initiative to make your own decisions is a must.
“You’re not going to have your parents there to quickly text. The time zone is 14-hour difference. You need to make the decisions yourself,” he said.
Tatch believes that through his experience so far, he’s learnt about “growing up, being a man, and understanding respect”.
He says that his interaction with Americans have influenced him, because “they’re very good at …respect”.