Huge life adventure begins for Whitianga football player

A trip to Texas opens up an adventure

Who would have thought that a trip to Texas for the Dallas International Girls Cup could lead to a scholarship for tertiary education in the USA?

In July Olivia McDonald will head to Norfolk in Nebraska to take up a four-year scholarship to study at North East Community College and represent them in soccer.

It’s the kind of dream so many talented sports people and bright students around the world hope will come true. For 18 year-old Olivia McDonald of Whitianga the opportunity is beyond her dreams, and it all began when she joined a football team as the only girl player.

In 2022 Olivia was selected to represent New Zealand in the international tournament as part of a team of players selected from schools around the country, and to help her get there Whitianga Lions donated $1000 towards her trip. “The trip was only partially funded, so they were an incredible support for me and my family.” 

“The trip was 16 days in total and the tournament was five days, so all the time leading up to that we were playing practice games. And it was really cool to be over there playing high level teams.”

- Olivia McDonald

In the tournament the NZ team played in the Dallas International Girls Cup but they just missed out on making the quarter finals. “It was a shame because we were so close, but it was by one goal, so it was really quite a knock. We lost a game that we should have won early on, because up until then we were doing really well.”

Olivia says it was still a good opportunity for the team and a highlight was playing a number of warm up rounds with local teams in Dallas “to get in the groove”, as the NZ team hadn’t played together prior to the trip.  

Scouts on the lookout

Part of Olivia’s intention of the trip was to get exposure to the American level of soccer where ‘scouts’ are known to seek out ‘rising sports players’ and hopefully get an offer for a scholarship. And that’s exactly what happened. 

“The college that I have signed for, the coach was at that tournament.” Olivia says she’s not sure if he saw her play but the tournament gave them a lot of footage at a really high level of football that the American coaches know and can recognise. “So I definitely think it helped me in order to get an offer to a college, and also to be able to put that opportunity on your resume to be able to say that you competed at that level. It makes you stand out a little more, I suppose.”  

Olivia says having Alana Gunn, a really knowledge coach made a big difference to the trip and she has now gone on to coach NZ under 17s teams.

While in Dallas, Olivia was billeted by a host family. “Being immersed in the American culture was something that settled my desire to go over to America for college, being able to see that there’s some lovely people in America and also to have that connection to fall back on whilst I’m over there.”

Mercury Bay the start of Olivia's football journey

To truly understand where Olivia’s big adventure all started we go back to a 12 year-old Olivia who had moved from Dunedin to Whitianga with her family and she wanted to play football. It’s known as soccer in the USA. 

“I used to play hockey and then I joined the boys’ football team. It was the Mercury Bay Football Team but I was the only girl in the grade.”

- Olivia McDonald

Olivia kept working her way up and in Year 10 started playing club football. “Mum was driving me to Hamilton once a week for training and then for the game on the weekend, on top of my school football. So we were doing a lot of travel.” 

In Year 12 Olivia moved to Cambridge for her two final years of schooling and to be able to play football there. 

“I went to boarding school at St Peters to play football for the Hamilton Wanders and I want to carry on playing up until I leave, to keep my skills up.” 

Generally her position is mainly striker, though she does also paly winger when required.

Olivia says for her there are a lot of reasons for playing football. “Ultimately I love winning. I love the feeling when you score a goal or you win the game, but I also love the people you meet through it, the team environment and just having a whole group of girls around you and you become really close and have a bond through the sport that doesn’t come from a lot else. It’s just such good fun.”

Heading to Nebraska 

On July 31 Olivia will head to Nebraska and she’s just deciding whether she will study agriculture or biology, both interest her. Her scholarship will cover most of her costs but she has to pay for her visa application, flights and her accommodation.  

“I’ll be in the halls of residence and that is a large portion of the total cost. I’m hugely grateful for the scholarship though and my family is a massive help.” 

-Olivia McDonald

Olivia is pretty determined to earn the money she needs and right now she’s living and working in the Cambridge area putting in 9-10 hour days.  “I’m working for a native tree planting and weed control company outside all day. It’s quite good fun and cool to make a bit of a difference, but its hard work cutting down weeds and prepping it to be planted mainly on farmers’ unusable farm land.

“I’m just trying to save as much as I can so that it can all go ahead. There’s so much that I’m looking forward to. Obviously the football over there, just playing at that level and getting the exposure to the high level coaching; the facilities that they have, it’s just incredible, but also going into such a tight-knit team environment. We’re living together and playing together on a daily basis. So the friends that I hope to make, I’m really looking forward to that and the connections that I’ll build being a completely new place. I’m looking forward to everything really.”