Noah Rastrick, U6, has been playing for Ipswich for the past 3 years! To celebrate his success and love of football we asked him some questions.

How long have you been playing football? 

A very long time, I can’t remember a time where I didn’t play football. I’ve always kind of been around it because my dad works in football, he used to work at Tottenham, and he now works at Norwich as the academy director, so I have been around football my whole life. I played local football all through when I was younger, and U14 was my first Ipswich game and then I got signed U15 and I have been there since then, now I’m in U18s. 

So how did you originally get signed onto U15s at Ipswich? 

I was playing a game through a local team and there was someone from Ipswich there and then my dad spoke to someone about it and I was given the opportunity to go and play for them, in a showcase game, and from there they offered me a formal trial. In the trial I did well and I was signed on 6 weeks afterwards. 

And what is the week-by-week of that? In terms of training? 

When you are still a schoolboy, so up to year 11, you are training usually 3 times a week in the evening so mine was Monday, Wednesday, Thursday and then you play a game on the Saturday. Once you get to U17, so in 6th form, a lot of the boys go full-time but my parents and I decided it was best for me to go through a hybrid program where I did my school work at the school and then try and play as much football as possible. I have been aiming for 2 days a week around my lessons and then involved in the match day around my academic studies. 

What A Levels do you study? 

Psychology, Business and Sports Science. 

Has studying sports science helped your sporting journey? 

Absolutely, there’s plenty of things you can take from the course and apply to football and the same goes the other way around. I’ll be sitting in class, and we will learn about motivation/teamwork, and I can pinpoint moments in football where that is relevant, it’s helpful to be able to link that to real life experiences. 

And what’s your future educational plans? 

Ideally I would love to study in America, I would really like the opportunity to get access to the elite sports that they have there and to combine that with my academics. 

Are there any that you are looking into at the moment? 

Not specifically, I’m keeping my options open, I have some agents that are helping me with the process which is exciting. 

So how do you fit your football life into your school life? How do you balance it with your A Levels? 

It can be difficult especially right now as we have just had mocks but I think I have learnt to cope with it pretty well and knowing that if I need help that the people at Ipswich are very good and as are the people at the school and they help me with balancing it. There are times as well when football can be very intense but on the whole it is manageable whilst difficult, but I have learnt a lot from it. 

Great, and do you also play for the school’s 1st Team? 

Yes I do. 

How much of your week is taken up by football? 

In those weeks where I am playing both for the school and Ipswich it is quite a large amount! Mr Cole is very good, he has a great program where we do off the pitch sessions as well, so we do Yoga, 5-a-side, it’s very good! Ipswich is also very intense. So for example, last term was Boys Football term, on Monday I would have Yoga with Mr Cole and then I’d go and do my own training in the evening. Tuesday with the school usually playing a game, Wednesday with the school, Thursday I’d be with Ipswich, Friday was a free day and Saturday I’d either be training or playing with Ipswich. 

And with a lot of people in sports a strict routine and diet is something that can be quite important, is this something that you find helpful at all? 

I think I have always been quite good with that, I’m very disciplined with diet and routine As I understand the importance of good behaviours and how it can benefit performance . I think That’s come from the 3 years of being at an elite club and to keep up with the other players you have to adapt. 

Have you ever played much nationally with Ipswich? 

Yes we have a great games program where we play other clubs around the country. During my time at Ipswich I’ve played teams like Chelsea, Tottenham, Manchester United, Arsenal. Scoring a few times against some of them! 

Does this involve a lot of travel then? 

Yeah we have done overnights at Fleetwood, Cardiff, Swansea, Burnley, it’s been a good summer travelling! Alongside this I have to travel to training and games whenever I go, which can be very draining and repetitive. But I believe it’s taught me the importance of discipline and made me understand how hard the world of football truly is mentally. 

And this might be a bit of a difficult one but why Football? Why not hockey or rugby? 

I think it’s because its more of a family thing for me, as I said earlier I have always been around it. It’s just been what I’ve done, even when I was in the Lower School I just tried to play football at every opportunity, I played rugby and hockey also but football was just what I liked to do. 

What do you like about it? 

Genuinely everything. Whilst, its difficult at times and very demanding and when the level increases it gets more difficult, but I’d say everything. I love being in the game, watching football, talking about football and just being around football! 

What are your future hopes? What’s the dream? 

At the minute the dream is to hopefully go to America to play college football, of course I would to do as well as I can over there and see where I end up with that. They seem to have quite a good system of getting players through to the Major Leagues Soccer, and if that’s an opportunity I could grasp then that would be amazing and see how far football takes me. I would love to have a playing career if possible but it’s very difficult and quite unpredictable, after that I would love to work in football, so whether that be coaching, scouting or another role I’d love to work in it. 

Have you ever coached before? 

I have done little bits here and there, Mr Cole has helped me with finding opportunities to coach younger years and I have also helped out with Girls Football as well. It’s good to try and explore what I would like to do. 

And how, in your experience, does Girls and Boys football differ? Do you think it differs? 

It’s the same game but its also different in a lot of ways as well. It is definitely a growing game and I think it is important that people get involved. It’s brilliant with what they have done here at Norwich School. Mr Cole has replicated the Boys Football program for Girls Football, so they also get the same coaching, the yoga, the 5-a-side and all of those things. They have a group of I believe 20-30 girls and I think it’s really good for girls to get involved.