An 18-year-old from Looe is looking forward to embarking on the opportunity of a lifetime after winning a scholarship to study and play football at an American university.

Joe Maywood, who has been studying at Callywith College in Bodmin for A-levels and is currently awaiting his results for his subjects of Geography, PE and Maths, will be setting out on Monday for Heathrow Airport ready to fly to the USA on Tuesday for a four-year course playing soccer, probably combined with studying Maths, at North Carolina Wesleyan College in the city of Rocky Mount.

It all began 15 months ago in March 2020 – just as the COVID crisis started to dawn in the UK – when he attended a presentation given at Callywith College by the Future Elite Sport organisation about the scholarships available to study in the States. At the end of the presentation students were asked if they would like to sign up for the application process and, having put his name down, Joe was then invited to attend a Zoom meeting on April 2. The meeting appeared to be attended by scores of other people, but Joe was invited to progress to the next stage.

The process then involved playing matches which were videoed and watched by coaches who then selected players whose skills impressed them. In the past Joe played for Cornwall U16s and also for Saltash 1st team for a while when aged 16 and the Future Elite Sport coaches evidently thought he showed promise as he was chosen to move on to the next stage of the process which involved being interviewed over the internet by coaches from different parts of the USA ranging from New York to Missouri and Georgia.

It was later in April 2020 that Joe heard that he had been selected so the Maywood family - comprising dad Bryan, mum Kirstie and Joe’s older brothers Oli, 30, Chaz, 27, and Harry, 21 – have now had 15 months to prepare for Joe’s move to America. He will not in fact be the first of the family to live overseas, as although Chaz and Harry both live not too far away from Looe in Bristol, Oli resides in Kenya.

When asked if he was excited about the journey ahead, Joe said he “can’t wait to get going”, and with all his friends due to head off to university soon he joked that the main thing he’ll miss about Looe is his mum’s cooking and being with his family. He added that he has been really enjoying his summer job, which has involved hiring out kayaks to summer visitors, but the scholarship was too good an opportunity to miss.

When asked about when he first recognised he had talent for football, he said that he had always loved the game but it was probably when he was a Year 7 or 8 student that he recognised his real passion for the sport while playing for Looe, and that passion had grown during Year 9. He feels there is nothing more satisfying that scoring a goal.

While he is Stateside he is looking forward to learning about different uses of language and forms of culture – not just American but also from the many students from different countries around the world, such as Italy and Mexico, who will also be taking part in the football scholarship scheme. His marches will also see him travelling to different parts of America, and if he needs a reminder of home then also travelling to the North Carolina college will be a friend from Pensilva who he has known since primary school days, Cadeyrn Rendle, as well as another student from Shropshire.

Kirstie said that although Joe was the tallest of her sons, the fact that he was the youngest of her boys and would be leaving home and travelling alone on a transatlantic flight next week, with a change of planes at Philadelphia, and would be living in America for four years when she hadn’t even been to the USA herself, at times gave her the “heebie-jeebies”. But she said that Joe has always been very capable and will calmly go where he needs to go. She also feels that with Joe lived from a young age in Looe, he will benefit from seeing the wider world and experiencing a different way of life, even if she had always thought it would be at a British university rather than across the Atlantic.

Kirstie said she is glad that the North Carolina city of Rocky Mount is larger than some of the other centres that other students taking part in the scholarship scheme will be travelling to – Rocky Mount has a population of 60,000 and is located 58 miles from the state capital of Raleigh and around 100 miles from the coast – and has a warm summertime climate currently in the 30 degrees C and generally never below the 20s C. She hopes that when the COVID restrictions finally ease she and Bryan will be able to visit. In addition, the US term structure means that Joe should be able to come back to Cornwall for a month in December and for a few weeks in late April to early May.

Proud dad Bryan added that this was a wonderful time for Joe with this great opportunity to study and play football in the United States.