Jenny and Joey Polimeni with James Collins and Joie Whybrow alongside President Kai Steele.
The Murrumburrah High School Hall was packed on Saturday for the presentation award ceremony for the Harden Hawks Junior Rugby League Football Club. Parents, players and family members were all on hand to witness the presentation of the team awards. Club President Kai Steele made a special presentation to the Polimeni family. He told the story of the perpetual awards given out to those players who excelled across the club or in a particular age group. A special presentation was made to Jenny and Joey Polimeni of the number 1 jumper. The number 1 wasn’t used after the passing of Lui Polimeni this year.
Kai said “After Lui’s tragedy, both clubs wanted to do something in honour of this young man. We decided to retire Lui’s number he played in last year for our 15’s. Although we didn’t have 15’s this year our 13’s used the same jumpers. Joie Whybrow had up and until that time worn the number 1 jumper. He was asked to not wear it again for the rest of the year and due to our limited jumpers, his only option was to wear number 14. Joie was more than happy to give up his number and wore the 14 with pride. I had many of the other towns president’s and executive ask me why Joie was wearing the number 14, when he has always played fullback. My reply each time was, that’s the number he chose to wear, as we wanted it to be kept low key through the year. Well done Joie.”
Joie Whybrow has shown great maturity and humility to wear the #14. When kids are growing up they most often than not have a rugby league idol and want to wear the same number as them. Joie is no doubt one of the best players in his local side, in fact, he is one of the best players in his age group in Group 9. With his maturity and continued dedication to the sport there is no doubt he will go far. By retiring the #1 jumper the club has given a special gift to the Polimeni family and allowed a young man who is a natural leader to continue to grow as a leader of other young men. The framing for the jumper was kindly donated by Framaglass at Young.
