The Junior Harden Red Devils had the opportunity to meet their Brumbies heroes over the weekend, not only getting pictures and signatures but also having the opportunity to learn training drills and anything else the professional stars could offer up.
Cadeyrn Neville, Blake Schoupp, Kaylon Thorn, Tevita Alatini, Kadin Pritchard were the five Brumbies who made the trip to the Twin Towns. President of the Junior Devils Jeremy Martin was pleased with how the evening went.
“We had planned the start to be training drills and having a bit of a kick about until the Brumbies showed up but as it turned out they rocked up early so they hung around doing the drills with us which the kids loved,” Jeremy said.
“When it came time to get the autographs the kids grabbed whatever they could to get signed, footballs, t-shirts, mountain bikes, their own foreheads, literally anything they could get signed they did.
“It really helped the registrations with tons of kids coming down to meet them, and then from there once they were here they all had tons of fun and couldn’t wait to play it on the week-ends.
“Blake Schoupp deserves a special mention, as a former Wallaby, we didn’t expect to have him for long but he ended up being one of the last to leave, organising all the boys and girls to scrum and giving them a go on the scrum machine. He even mixed age groups just so everyone could get a feel for what he was doing and what they were supposed to be doing in the front row.”
Schoupp has visited Harden before and had a rapport with a few of the kids. “On his last visit he came to the schools and did a few drills with them so they all had a bit of confidence with him that they maybe didn’t have with the others at the start but by the end all the kids were comfortable,” Martin continued.
“The other boys spread out through the other age groups. They just sat back and critiqued more than Blake did and just came in when needed, but it was definitely great to have them there, especially the wisdom of different drills and stuff that they actually do themselves.We had them holding tackle bags and every time I said a drill was done, they critiqued everything they could.” Jeremy was a huge contributor in bringing junior rugby back to Harden and has done a phenomenal job of getting so many age groups up and running.
“My role as president is probably more hands-on now. We got a few new roles, but my role has gone into a lot of recruitment and getting kids on the paddock and letting people know what we are about,” Jeremy said about his ever-evolving presidential role.
“We’ve been around the schools and got a few regos out of that. Without school footy we wouldn’t be where we are today.
“The Under 6’s are playing Tri-Tag at the moment and I think we’ve got 13 to them. They’re absolutely loving that. Under 10’s has got the numbers, Under 12’s is good and we are very proud to have an Under 14’s this year. We’re just sneaking through the line with a team of fifteen Under 14 players, and getting five boys over from Boorowa and I encourage any Boorowa player that wants to come over it helps us out and it gets them into rugby which they don’t have close by.”
-Tully Pott