To focus on soccer, junior Aarav Saxena spent a year at a boarding school abroad in Portugal. He had the opportunity to refine his soccer skills, and to live and train with students from around the world.

The year before, Saxena was doing online school, and he didn’t have a soccer team. His parents wanted him to play at a high level and found out about boarding school and sent him there with him being okay with it.

“I just wanted some exposure at a higher level, and I wanted to make my life fully about soccer instead of splitting it up with academics,” Saxena said. “Soccer was the main reason why I went there, and I also wanted to play with kids from other countries, so I can get exposure to other cultures as well.”

A typical day for Saxena would be, a gym session from 6:30 a.m. to 8:00 a.m., then having school from 8:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. Followed up with recovery like warming up, and stretching for 30 minutes, and then two hour training sessions. They finish up with dinner and study hall. The Lights were out by 11 p.m.

“At first, I started missing my family, especially my little brother, him and I were really close,” Saxena said. “But I started getting used to it because we’d be on the road most of the time on the way for games and showcases. So I got used to it, but towards the end of the year I started to see my family a lot, but then they started coming over and visiting me.”

A majority of the students at the boarding school were from different countries. Saxena’s roommate was from Mexico City, and other students were from Sweden, Germany and Jamaica.

“At first I was a little bit nervous cause I was new and I was a freshman at the time, but as I lived there longer, I got to know everybody really well,” Saxena said. “Those guys, I still talk to them to this day where we’re like family.”

Saxena met 19-year-old Adriana from Vancouver, Canada who felt like an older brother, teaching him about soccer. Saxena also had a coach named Thomas over the summer where he gave honest, and direct feedback, which Saxena appreciated.

“The people there are really kind and they’re really welcoming,” Saxena said. “If I didn’t take a bus or the train to practice, I always took an Uber and they were really nice to me. They would always ask how my day was and if I got an Uber driver with the same language as me, [they] would always invite me to [their] house for dinner with [their] family and I thought that was really, really unique, because I’ve never experienced something like that before.”

One of Saxena’s memorable parts of his time in Portugal was watching a soccer match between Benfica and Sporting. They are the two biggest teams and rivals.

“The atmosphere was just crazy,” Saxena said. “There were people throwing flares and they were throwing stuff on the field. 
It was insane. That’s something that you won’t really get here and that’s something you’ll only get over there. So, it was really amazing.”

The style of soccer is different compared to Portugal and the United States. In Portugal they focus on the player’s ability with the ball, game analysis and tactical knowledge whereas in the United States, it is focused on how fast, big and strong the player is.

“It definitely opened my eyes a lot,” Saxena said. “It changed my perspective on a sport, and it taught me that the higher level you get to the more of a job the sport becomes rather than something you just play because you love.”