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Brice Carr
is training with the U17 national soccer team, with hopes of
making the U.S. national team. In addition, he is among the
150 invitees to the ESP Adidas Showcase in California in July
where 500 coaches from the United States and around the world
scout this country’s best young players.
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Brice Carr’s life changed in December
when the phone rang while he was studying for a physics final exam. By
the time he hung up, physics was the last thing on his mind. Carr, a
junior at Marquette University High School, had just been invited to
train with the U17 national soccer team in Bradenton, Fla.
"I knew I wanted to do this,"
Carr says. "I’ve been training for this my entire life."
Since January, Carr has trained and
attended school at IGM Academy, which is the home of the U17 National
Team residency program. Brice, who is primarily a center back, has
represented this country at tournaments in Spain, Argentina,
Austria-Germany and France. About half of the 40 players in Bradenton
will be selected for the FIFA U-17 World Cup 2007 this summer in South
Korea.
Carr played on Marquette’s varsity
since his freshman year and won one state championship with the
Hilltoppers. He loved playing soccer with his teammates and was a
strong student. Still, the chance to play with the best players his
age in the world was too tempting to pass up. "I miss my friends
sometimes, but this is what I want," he says. "I want to see
how good I can be, and this is the environment that will allow me to
do it."
His parents, Craig and Marti Carr, were
supportive of his decision. "He left a very good high school
academically, but we thought the experience he would gain through
travel and the different people he would meet would be worth it,"
his father says.
A typical weekday for Carr goes like
this: He wakes up at 6:30 a.m. and lifts weights or works on his
fitness. Then the team practices from around 9 to 11:30. He attends
school from about 12:30 to 5 p.m. Class size is small; Brice describes
his teacher as "more of a personal tutor." On Saturdays,
Carr and his teammates often scrimmage college teams.
Brice plans on playing soccer in
college; his long-term goal is to make the U.S. national team. At this
point, the schools he is most serious about are Santa Clara, Notre
Dame and George Washington.
Despite his soccer success, he isn’t
neglecting his academics. Want proof? He still managed to score an A-
on that physics exam.
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