FOURTEEN-year-old Natarsha Ciardi, a Year 9 student at Port Macquarie High School, hopes one day to play for the Matildas, the Australian women’s soccer team.
While that might seem an ambitious goal, Natarsha is well on her way to fulfilling that ambition, having been selected to play futsal on the under-15 Australian team to tour the UK in October this year.
Natarsha first tried futsal at St Paul’s High School before moving to Port High in the middle of her Year 8 studies last year. Futsal is an indoor soccer game and is a fast-growing popular sport among teenagers. She had as one of her ambitions to get on five different sports teams to be eligible for a sports award. She made the soccer and futsal teams before she left St Paul’s and admits to not being sure what other sports she might have tried out for.
Natarsha’s first break came when she received a letter last year inviting her to play in the Northern NSW Team in the schools competition in October. She played on that team at Penrith in Sydney playing five games over a week. “We missed out by one goal to get into the semis,” she said.
Her second break came as a phone call inviting her to play for Western Queensland in January this year at Hawkesbury – Sydney, again. Five games were played there as well with her side losing out in the semi-finals.
The best players are not always on the winning team and Natarsha received an email next time inviting her to play for the under-15 Australian team to tour the UK in October.
“We will get to travel all over the UK playing, training and sightseeing,” Natarsha said. “Playing in England will be a great experience as England is fanatical about soccer.”
Natarsha’s training schedule includes playing every day of the week with Port FC and refereeing on Saturdays, plus playing with Football Mid North Coast Development in Coffs Harbour once a month.”
This will be the 18th annual tour of the UK for an Australian futsal side.
