When it comes to community spirit and team camaraderie, it is hard to go past the Illawarra South Coast Dragons squad for next year’s SLE Andrew Johns Cup.
This group of under 16s boys not only helped rescue a young surfer in distress but then helped two young women set up a wedding venue on the beach.
Nathaniel Morrison, coach of the Illawarra South Coast Dragons Andrew Johns Cup squad said he felt great pride in seeing his players chip in and help without expecting any thanks in return.
“We’re trying to harness this good bunch of kids to not only help each other on the field when we’re playing, but off it too.” Morrison told nswrl.com.au
“Doing a few good deeds I think solidifies the team a bit. They were all feeling happy that they could be of some help as a group.”
Their heroics happened within two weeks in November, first at Killalea Beach south of Shellharbour, and then at Kendalls Beach near Kiama.
“We were just doing some fitness on Killalea beach… when we finished we were walking back up towards the carpark,” Morrison said.
“And I saw two of our players (Naite Gibbs and Israel Smith) run out towards the surf. It wasn’t a big swell but there was a deep channel to wade through.
“They helped a young girl, who had blood streaming down her face. They had seen her come off a wave with her board flicking up into the air and hitting her on the way down.
“The boys saw her bobbing around and crying. They just instinctively reacted by racing out to her.
“They brought her and her board in. Our trainer had his medical bag on the beach with us, we sat her down and patched her up.”
Morrison said Gibbs and Smith had instinctively wanted to help.
“I’m extremely proud of them. They didn’t do it to get pats on the back. They told me she needed help and they helped her – no big deal to them.”
Morrison said it was similar to an incident last year – again with the Andrew Johns squad – when one of the players Lucas Mak, who is a trained surf life saver, was out surfing and helped save a swimmer in trouble.
Then a week ago the U16s were down at Kendalls Beach for a fitness session.
“There is a set of stairs you run up, then back down the path and across the beach and back up the stairs,” Morrison said.
“It again is a good fitness test for the boys and a change of scenery.
“I had gone down earlier in the day to make sure the track was suitable and there were two young women carrying a table across the beach.
“They told me they had a wedding on and there was three large stacks of chairs – maybe 100 to 150 of them.
“I asked them ‘How are you getting those across?’ and they told me they would carry them.
“I told them to leave them there as I had 30 boys about to run through here pretty soon, so as part of our fitness routine I’d get them to help.
“The women were just blown away… it would have saved them a lot of time and effort.
“I told the players ‘We’re going to give back today’ and they all said ‘Yep, let’s do it’. They picked up two chairs each and ferried them across the beach back and forth.
“The girls were cheering them on, arms in the air, just very grateful.”
