Shaun Reay - Early Life

Early Life

Born in Boldon Colliery, Tyne and Wear, Reay attended Boldon School, Boldon Colliery from the year 2000 and left in 2005. In 2008, He enrolled on a three year Association of Accounting Technicians course at South Tyneside College.

Reay's involvement in junior football included spells at Boldon Colts and Redheugh Boys. Redheugh have produced notable footballers including Paul Gascoigne and Don Hutchison. He cites his favourite moment at Redheugh as scoring the winning goal in the final of the Sage Tournament at Durham in 2004 against Redby Town. This was his last touch of the ball for the club before signing for Darlington. Reay has some advice for Redheugh's up-and-coming players: "You can't connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backwards. So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future. You have to trust in something - your gut, destiny, life, karma, whatever. This approach has never let me down, and it has made all the difference in my life.". He scored a number of goals for Redheugh including a hat-trick against Leam Rangers and two against South Moor. These goalscoring exploits set Reay on the way to signing for Darlington.

As well as his footballing exploits He also shown incredible aptitude in a number of physical and mental disciplines. He has represented his school in the South Tyneside Schools Cross Country Championships, finishing in third place and completed the Rubix cube in a time of 2 minutes and 47 seconds.