FROM ROSS COUNTY’S FIRST XI TO OCEAN’S 11
US SCHOLARSHIP SAW HIM MIX WITH MEGASTARS
BY GAVIN BERRY LAS VEGAS wouldn’t be the first place you would consider going for rehabilitation. The need for recovery usually follows a trip to Sin City.
But for one Scot it proved the perfect destination to get his football career back on track, even if it was harder staying on the straight and narrow off the park.
Martin Kenny was at a crossroads almost two decades ago after he was freed by Ross County despite showing promise in a Staggies youth side where Don Cowie was the standout.
But the Highlander was soon heading in the right direction with help from an ex-player who spotted his name in a newspaper article.
Scot Andrew Kean’s company FirstPoint USA was in its infancy and Kenny had no hesitation in trying his luck on one of the American college scholarships they offer.
Kenny’s first port of call was on the outskirts of New York where he scored 58 goals in his first two years.
But when he discovered he could go to a certain city in Nevada then he was intrigued by what it had to offer.
They say what happens in Vegas stays in Vegas and it was there Kenny remained for 13 years, eventually finding a job as a poker dealer.
He might not have got the MLS career he once hoped for but Kenny still got to live the dream and football didn’t end for him as he continued playing in a Sunday League for... Partick Thistle Las Vegas.
And as former team-mate Cowie rubbed shoulders with Premier League aces, Kenny ended up dealing for some of them in Planet Hollywood as well as a string of other celebrities including Leonardo DiCaprio in the world-famous Bellagio Hotel.
The 37-year-old said: “I did two years YTS at County but was released at 18. I had trials at various clubs including Bradford City, Halifax, Kettering Town and Northampton Town but it wasn’t happening.
“I was then included in a newspaper article which featured players who were looking for clubs and Andrew gave me a call. As soon as America was mentioned I was like ‘Yeah, I’m listening’ and I caught a flight.
“My first destination was a two-year school at Cayuga Community College in Syracuse, upstate New York where I studied general Liberal Arts. I was 20 at the time and wanted to go to Vegas for my 21st birthday.
“I didn’t know there was a university in Vegas until my host family mentioned there was one there, UNLV.
“They flew me out all-expenses in 2005 and I was accepted.
“It wasn’t like any other university because we had the Las Vegas Strip instead of the college campus atmosphere.
“The first bright lights we could see from our room was the giant guitar outside the Hard Rock Cafe and you need some willpower. It would have been easy to go in another direction.
“You had to keep your grades up but I got lucky when I was there because Ricky Hatton had all his fights in Vegas as did Floyd Mayweather and Conor McGregor. “I’m a UFC, boxing and music fan so I was able to make the most of my time there. I went to as many of the fights as I could.
“Bellagio was the first major hotel I went to and I met my first celebrity, Leonardo DiCaprio, who was playing poker. I actually studied casino management in Vegas.
“After I graduated I had to make a decision on whether to keep chasing the so-called football dream or get a job. I ended up becoming a poker dealer and went on to supervise in the Planet Hollywood casino.
“Through that I dealt to Darren Fletcher, Tim Cahill, Theo Walcott and Sporty Spice.
“And I started playing football for a Sunday team called Partick Thistle Las Vegas. The boy who ran the team had good friends at Firhill so we had all their tops every year.” Kenny has now moved to Orlando to work as a coach and, in keeping with his own fairytale, is just a short drive from Disneyland. And he believes any players released as a result of the coronavirus crisis should jump at the chance of the free support being offered by FirstPoint. He said: “The guy who originally told me about the benefits of a scholarship was another former Ross County player Graham Munro. “He ended up being general manager of a team in Orlando. “I met my wife when I was working in the casino. We wanted to start a family and felt Vegas wasn’t the best place. “I got in touch with Graham about coaching and he told me about a position in Orlando. So we sold our house and started another life.” For more about scholarships visit www.firstpointusa.com