Scott Murray's life journey has taken in NSW, Queensland, England, the US, Canada and South America, but he said it's the Launceston City midfield that most feels like home.
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Having grown up playing for Westside juniors, the widely-travelled 23-year-old is proud to see the Prospect club's senior side reaping the reward of his multi-cultural soccer apprenticeship.
"It's awesome. I was 15 last time I was here and the club have done amazing things to get me back so I just hope I can pay them back on the pitch," he said. "It's a big club with a lot of history.
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"I've been around the junior teams at training and thought 'that used to be me' and to now be able to play NPL with the same club is really cool."
Sydney-born Murray moved to Tasmania aged 10 and went to Prospect High School. After playing juniors with Westside and a couple of years seniors at Northern Rangers he went to Northamptonshire in England on a football scholarship.
This continued in the US where he spent four years studying psychology at Bluefield College in Virginia while competing in National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics division 1 soccer.
"There's no other place on Earth where you have the opportunity to play soccer at a high level while getting an education," he said.
"It was very technical. I was playing with a lot of Europeans - Danes, Swedes, Germans - which was a good diverse group of players who all brought something different to the table and I was lucky to be playing for a very successful college. In senior year I was co-captain and took them to national championships which was pretty cool. There are about 300 NAIA schools and the championships are just for 32 so it was good to make that."
Graduating at the beginning of 2017, Murray returned to Australia and began playing for Sunshine Coast Fire in NPL Queensland before a desire to travel saw him backpacking through South America and snowboarding in Canada.
"I gave football a break but missed it too much and so here I am.
I gave football a break but missed it too much and so here I am
- Scott Murray
"I came back to Australia in June and the Queensland transfer window had shut. The only NPL league that does not have a transfer window was Tasmania so it was a great chance to come back and a perfect fit to return to where I played my junior football."
Murray thanked coaches Lino Sciulli and Roger Mies for his opportunity and said he is enjoying playing the no.10 role behind Mies' son Noah at centre-forward.
"It feels like coming home because I've been on the move for so long but there's still some familiar faces.
"Aaron Mattarozzi was in juniors when we won under-16 comps together at Churchill Park and it's great to get back with him again."
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Rob Shaw
Heralding the impact of Tasmanian sport without saying "punching above its weight" is not as easy as it sounds.
Heralding the impact of Tasmanian sport without saying "punching above its weight" is not as easy as it sounds.
