Cronulla Caringbah in Jim Beam Cup
It’s official! Cronulla Caringbah Sharks Junior Rugby League Football Club has been accepted into the NSWRL Jim Beam Cup Competition for the 2008 Season. Cronulla Caringbah Sharks will compete against the current clubs in the competition as well as the other new entrants, one being a Western Australian team, the Western Reds.
Graeme Bloor, Cronulla Caringbah Sharks President said at the Jim Beam Cup Presentation night on Wednesday 3rd October 2007, that this is a fantastic opportunity for all Rugby League Players in the Shire. There is now a clear pathway for players to reach the NRL. Cronulla Sutherland Sharks now have a pathway for juniors starting with the Junior Representative sides Mathews Cup and SG Ball. The players could then go on to make the Sharks National Youth under 20’s team.
If they are over 20, they could then use the Jim Beam Cup and the Premier League pathway to reach their goals. The Sharks are one of only a few NRL teams that can boast this complete set up. Graeme also reiterated that this was not just for the players of Cronulla Caringbah Sharks but all rugby league players in the district. He said that there has been an enormous amount of work done to get the team into the competition by the Cronulla Caringbah Sharks.
The club has also secured the service of Luke Goodwin to coach the side; Luke is the son of former St George Great Teddy Goodwin. Luke comes with great experience. He played 1st grade rugby league and has coached representative teams for the Sharks.
The club will be holding open trials for the team on the 27th October 2007 from 10am at Toyota Stadium. Those players interested will need to download a trial form from the Sharks or Cronulla Caringbah website and return it no later than the 24th October 2007 to ensure a trial. Story from www.sharks.com.au
Locals hit out into the NSW team.
Liam O’Dowd of the St Patrick’s Baseball Club has been selected to represent Baseball NSW at the U16's National Championships in January next year. After being cut from the winter development squad in the lead-up to the NSW trials, the 15-year-old wasn’t too sure where he stood with selectors but backed his own ability to return, and is ecstatic with his selection.
“I was over the moon with being selected I couldn’t believe it at first because I missed out on the winter development and was pretty disappointed,” O’Dowd said. “But I came back for the actual trials and the fitness was really hard because I wasn’t used to it but it obviously paid off.”
The National Championships will be held at the Redlands venue where Baseball Queensland will play host to seven states, battling it out over a ten day period for the National prize. The Championships will also become the stepping plate for players keen to earn a U.S Major League Baseball (MLB) contract like that achieved recently by St Patrick’s Lachlan Hodge and Illawong’s Michael Lennox. For the time being though, O’Dowd just wants to enjoy the experience of playing for his state before he starts thinking too much about MLB scouts.
“I guess it’s in the back my mind, but really all I want to do is play well for NSW and have fun.”
Dreams and destiny have long been a part of O’Dowd’s sporting career. Whilst he started as a t-baller he was also very much involved in soccer, football, surf life saving and golf. His background suggests that baseball wasn’t a part of his past generation with his father playing cricket all throughout his childhood.
“We have no family background at all with baseball… dad played cricket,” he said. “He likes his baseball though and is the President of the club for the second year running.”
The St Patrick’s College schoolboy has had considerable success over the years in sport receiving numerous awards and recognition for his outstanding ability as he often played way above his weight at times throwing him to where he is at today. His main interest now though is obviously baseball and just enjoying life.
“Sport has always been a part of my life but I’m really starting to like my baseball and am very interested in it… golf is a lot of fun too.”
Both O’Dowd’s enthusiasm and hard training over the years have impressed his coaches and selectors which were proven with his recent selection. Last season, O’Dowd was a leading member of the winning St Patrick’s side which took out the under 16-1’s Cronulla-Sutherland competition after five hard years of play and grand final appearances. Club coach Dale Lincoln has seen the young talent improve over the years but has always thought he had the potential to go one step further.
“Liam always had the talent there and with the coaching he’s received at representative level for Cronulla and his passion for baseball has made him very hard not to select in the NSW team,” Lincoln said. “He’s also a genuine leader, he’s matured over the years and you can see it in his dedication to training… he’s the guy that his teammates look up too.”
Mitchell Simon also from the St. Patrick’s Baseball Club has again earned selection in the National side for the third year running. At only thirteen years of age, the dynamic pitcher was chosen for the under 14’s team after producing some impressive performances over the years. In 2005, Simon was selected in the NSW under 12’s Baseball side after his MVP performance in the “All Star Game”.
From there, Simon amazed coaches and selectors with an exceptional display of pitching at the Under 13 Autumn Classic Baseball Tournament in Auckland, New Zealand a year later. His performance there resulted in selectors inviting him to play for the Australian under 13 team in the Cal Ripken Series which toured the US earlier this year. The series proved to be a first-rate experience for the kid at such a young age.
“It was awesome seeing a baseball-crazy country like America, and I’d love to do something like that again, it was a really good experience,” Simon said.
Guy Edmonds from the Illawong Baseball Club was also selected to represent the Under 16’s side for NSW. The three players will hope to produce a dynamic display at the tournament early next year and never know what their future may hold behind the mound with MLB selectors on the scout!
Story by Reece Carter.
Five local teams now in Champion of Champions Semis
Five Sutherland Shire teams will play their semi-finals of soccer’s champion of champions on Sunday October 21. The Champion of Champions is played between the top teams in each grade from the various associations across NSW.
Four teams had qualified on Sunday October 7 as reported in last week’s stories. However, the Miranda Magpies under 10s and the Barden Ridgebacks under 11s did not play their quarter finals till last Sunday October 14. The local teams scored one out of two with the Magpies defeating Carrs Park 2 nil and Barden Ridgebacks missing out 2 – 1 in a closely contested clash with Peakhurst United.
The Miranda Magpies under 10s kick off the semis for the local sides at 8.30am at Ray Marshall Reserve No 1, South Granville at 8.30am. Their opponents will be the Camden Tigers.
In the 15s the Shire’s champion 15s, the Menai Hawks take on Mt Annan at Soccer NSW headquarters, Valentine Park No. 2, Glenwood at 3pm. At the same complex, Sylvania Heights, will take on WPH/Cherrybrook in one of the under 17s semi-finals at 11.15am.
Unfortunately, the semi-final involving the Shire’s under 17 champions, Lilli Pilli will clash with the 15s game. Its semi against WPH/Cherrybrook begins at 3.15pm at Valentine Park on ground No 3. No doubt, local supporters will be keeping their wide angle lenses on to take in both 15s and 17s games.
The All Age Women semi-final clash between North Sutherland and Ourimbah University will take place at Valentine Pk No.1 at noon.
The finals will be played on October 28.
Wheelchair basketballers abroad
A large contingent of players from the Australian Men's Wheelchair Basketball team are currently playing overseas during the Australian off-season, fine-tuning their games and gaining valuable experience on the international scene.
This year's contingent of players includes a number of the young, up-and-coming stars of the future, including Heathcote’s Darren Skuse (West Sydney Razorbacks), Brett Stibners ("Highlube" Wollongong Roller Hawks) and Bill Latham (Wenty Leagues Wheelkings).
The full contingent of players, the countries they are in and the names of their respective clubs are shown below:
Spain: Darren Skuse – Fundosa; Brett Stibners- Madrid; Bill Latham – Seville
Italy: Shaun Norris – Taranto; Brad Ness – Taranto; Jace Clare – Santo Stefano
Turkey: Justin Eveson – Galatasaray
Germany: Andrew Flavell – Cologne
Australian Rollers head coach Ben Etteridge advises "For information on the Italian league, do a google search and translation for rollingbasket.it. Galatasaray have a good website posting all the teams results and statistics - search "Galatasaray Wheelchair Basketball" in google!! Spanish news is a little harder to find and searchers may find it doesn’t necessarily translate well into English." Cricket NSW launches Coaching Kits for Volunteers To help coaches deliver a meaningful practice experience for cricketers, Cricket NSW High Performance Coach Educator, David Patterson has designed silver and gold coaches’ kits. “
The Silver Kit is designed for your ‘mum and dad’ volunteers. All of a sudden they have a team of a dozen 10 year olds and they are thinking ‘what am I going to do with them?’ ” explained Patterson.
“The Gold Kit is designed for grade clubs through to junior representative players.”
The items in the kit can be used to provide greater variety at practice, making it more fun for players. It complements traditional hard bat and hard ball net activities
The kits contain an instruction manual on how to use each item. The Coaches Kit is available only through Kingsgrove Sports (www.kingsgrovesports.com.au )
Under 10 Cricket Development Squad Trial
Sutherland Shire Junior Cricket Association will hold a selection trial for the Under 10 Development squad at Anzac Oval, Engadine, on Sunday 28th October. The squad starts on Sunday 11th November.
For more details and to download the nomination form go to www.ssjca.com.au
Junior basketball trials
If you want to see local basketball talent in action check out the representative trials at Sutherland Basketball Stadium.
Sutherland Basketball Association has announced the dates for its representative squad trials. They are:
Under 18s: Saturday 3 November, 12.30pm – 2.30pm; Sunday 11 November, 9am – 11am; Saturday 8 December, 12 – 2pm.
Under 16s: Saturday 3 November, 2.30pm – 4.30pm; Saturday 10 November, time to be confirmed; Saturday 8 December 2pm – 4pm
Under 14s: Sunday 4 November, 11am – 1pm; Saturday 10 November, 2pm – 4pm; Sunday 9 December, 8.30am – 10.30am
Under 12s: Sunday 4 November, 9am – 11am; Sunday 11 November, 2pm – 4pm; Sunday 9 December, 1pm – 3pm
The squads will be selected after the final trials on December 9. More information at www.sutherlandbasketball.com.au
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