Everley Gilmore, 13, has returned to Prebbleton after two weeks in England with the George Cowie Foundation, in partnership with Premier League and Women’s Super League club West Ham United.
She was one of 50 youngsters who spent time under the eye of coaches at West Ham and other clubs, including Bolton Wanderers, Watford, and the Robbie Fowler Academy.
Everley, the daughter of Prebbleton FC president Shannon Gilmore, was selected after excelling at similar camps hosted first in Christchurch, then on the Gold Coast.
Everley said she loved the trip.
“I really enjoyed it. It was really fun getting to know all the other people as well. They were really good, it was a lot of fun.”
Gilmore said Everley had more than held her own at the camp.
“They look for a lot of different things, mostly attitude.
"They say they can teach anything that you haven’t got, but they can’t teach attitude,” he said.
“They really liked her attitude, and she held her own physically, so it was a good experience.
“They had to be available from 7am every day until 11pm, so that was a big day for a 13-year-old.
“They had a couple of days off where we did a bit of sightseeing and went to a couple of those EPL and WSL games.”
The family was also looking into where they could go to further Everley’s football development.
“There’s not a huge amount of opportunities with pathways for kids in Christchurch of that age group, so we could be assessing her options moving forward,” said Gilmore.
“There’s also a lot of good opportunities in Australia.
"A lot of the people who were on the camp were Aussies or Kiwi-born Aussies, and some of the learnings from talking to those guys was that the opportunities over there are pretty good.
“The world is her oyster at the moment, so it’s pretty cool, and she’s on a real high from taking that trip.”
