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Mason Moore, the goalie for Belvidere North and for the Rockford Raptors’ Elite Clubs National League team, has just returned from a soccer trip of a lifetime.
Moore made the U.S. National Select Team of the Olympic Development Program for the first time this year, and he just returned from a tournament in Turin, Italy, with his new team. There, Moore started in goal in four of the team’s six games, and he even had a shutout.
“It was pretty cool. Football over there ― or soccer ― is just huge,” Moore said this week, after returning from his eight-day trip overseas. “There were like 1,000 people there to watch one of our games… And the soccer was just incredible. Everybody is good over there.”
Moore and his team took part in the Italy Pro Cup Tournament, which included teams from four countries. They also played in a pre-tournament exhibition game in Lugano, Switzerland. And, they did plenty of sightseeing along the way.
But, of course, the main focus was the soccer.
“The game is so fast paced over there,” said Moore, who had played in soccer tournaments in Florida and around the United States, but never out of the country before. “This was such a great experience. I’ll never forget it.
“And I know I got a lot out of it in my soccer game.”
Moore, a junior at Belvidere North, tore his meniscus and his MCL at the end of last year and missed four months of action. But he’s now back to full strength, which he showed in Italy.
His game was on-point.
“I played pretty well,” he admitted. “But this trip will only make me better.”
He now returns to the middle of the Raptors’ season, where his Boys’ 2008 Team is undefeated and on a roll. He will join the Blue Thunder high school team for his senior season in the fall.
“And I hope to get to play in some tournaments in different countries like Italy again,” he added. “It’s not just some soccer games, it’s a whole experience. It’s an adventure.”
Jay Taft is a Rockford Register Star sports reporter. Email him at jtaft@rrstar.com and sign up for the Rockford High School Sports Newsletter here at rrstar.com. Jay has covered a variety of sports, from the Chicago Bears and Blackhawks to local youth sports, since the turn of the century at the Register Star.
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