Merrick Siblings Vie for Spot on Irish National Soccer Team

During their summer break, many kids enjoy hitting the beach.

However, twin sisters Niamh and Rebecca Woods, sophomores at Calhoun High School, were instead hitting the fields of Ireland as they auditioned for slots on the prestigious Irish National soccer team.

“We were really excited, but really nervous too,” Niamh said. “But once we started playing at the tryouts, it was fine. It was like we were at a regular, everyday practice.”

Rebecca and Niamh, both 14, have been playing for The Explosion, an Elite Clubs National League (ECNL) travel soccer team out of East Meadow, for the past ten years. Rebecca also plays soccer for Calhoun, whereas Niamh likes to take a break from the field by competing on the school’s swim team.

The coach of the Irish National soccer team, Harry Kenny, follows the ECNL, and when it came time for him to start recruiting new members to his club, Kenny contacted Explosion coach Chris Aloisi, asking him if he had any under-17 star players he might recommend.

However, the catch was that any prospective members had to have first-line Irish descent, but luckily, the Woods twins have a direct tie to the Emerald Isle – their mother, Anna, immigrated to the United States when she was 18 years old.

As a result of their mother’s status as a naturalized U.S. citizen, Niamh and Rebecca enjoy dual Irish and U.S. citizenship. This fact, coupled with the girls’ already formidable soccer skills, made them ideal candidates to try out for the Irish National team.

With that, the twins were flown to Dublin this past July where they were among only 13 Americans asked to try out for the Irish National team. Rebecca and Niamh’s father, Gary, said that the decision to send his daughters over to Europe for this opportunity was an easy one.

“My wife and I said, 'It’s a chance of a lifetime and they deserve it...they’ve worked hard',” he said. “They’ve been playing soccer since they were four, on high-level teams, so we said, let’s give them a shot. This is the stepping stone to the next level – the World Cup if you make it, maybe even the Olympics.”

If Rebecca and Niamh are called up to serve on the Irish National team, they would be required to make regular trips to Europe to play in games against the teams of other countries. However, the trips would mean more time spent with their mother’s family in Ireland, which would be fine with Rebecca.

“We really love seeing our cousins. When we go there, we spend every single minute with them,” she said. “We don’t get to see them a lot, so getting on the Irish National team would be a good excuse to see them more often.”

When the girls have a spare minute from the rigors of both school and the soccer field, they enjoy filling their free time with – you guessed it – more sports, proving that the desire to compete is in their blood.

“We do love sports,” Rebecca said. “Right now we’re in our off-season, so we’re on a swim team during the summer. We also play volleyball and during the winter, we go skiing.”

“Yeah, we really don’t do anything else. We just play a lot of sports,” Niamh added.

For now, the Woods family awaits an answer from the Irish National team as to whether or not Rebecca and Niamh have made the cut, but regardless of the outcome, their mother Anna said that her girls are winners to her.

“I’m immensely proud of them,” she said. “I think they’ve worked very hard over the years...they love the game, heart and soul, they give everything to the game. Our whole family is immensely proud, and even if nothing comes out of this, it’s been a great experience and a great opportunity for them.”