We asked our 2020 season student coaches to tell us about their motivation for coaching a junior team at St Bede’s College this season.

Olly Plunkett: “Coaching rugby at St. Bede’s College is a once in a lifetime opportunity that I could never let slip by. St Bede’s has watched over me for more than four years and coaching gives me a chance to give something back to the College. When the chance to coach arose I was immediately interested. I love the sport of rugby and I also knew that I would learn a lot about myself and about working with others. I want to give the younger boys the best experience they could possibly have – as was the case when I was in their shoes being coached by a Year 13 student.”

Zephyr Quartly: “One of the biggest reasons why wanted to become a coach was my experience in the U13s. In Year 9 I was unsure what high school rugby was going to be like, but I found out fast. We had six student coaches looking after my U13 rugby team. They all brought different skills to the table. It was an interesting year, but the student coaches made it one of my favourite rugby experiences. From that season, I knew that when I became a Year 13 student I would pay it forward and coach a team of my own. My goal is to improve the rugby skills of the players as well as making it an enjoyable year for them.”

Luke de Roo: “I decided to become a student coach in 2020 to do my part in giving back to the College and the rugby community. I am looking forward to the experience and am keen to learn and gain new skills along the way and also to get to know the junior boys better.”

Jack Coakley: “I have wanted to coach rugby at St. Bede’s as rugby is a sport which I have always enjoyed learning about and playing. Coaching now gives me another opportunity to be more involved and to able to learn more about it while teaching others what I have learned. I have been coached by students at St. Bede’s and really enjoyed the experience. Since then I have wanted to be one myself and am grateful to be given the opportunity to become a coach.”

Nick O’Connor: “This year I have decided to become a rugby coach in St. Bede’s mostly because I want to be more involved in the sport. After having surgery go wrong on my ACL when I was in Year 9, I have been forced to watch rugby from the sidelines in winter time. I have enjoyed this, but would prefer to be part of a team, so I have decided to coach. I also see this as a great opportunity to learn heaps of new skills through coaching, and in life, and I see it as a chance to help young players at Bede’s.”

Tom Arscott: “I am looking forward to coaching this year as I want to give back to the Bedean rugby community. In my time at St. Bede’s rugby has taught me much about hard work and commitment as well as the importance of to being humble in victory and gracious in defeat. The things I want to instill in my team are the value of teamwork, skills practice, fitness and most importantly be proud to represent St. Bede’s Rugby.”

Sam Lawry: “I want to coach a team this year to be able to give back to the school and build a stronger relationship with the younger boys in the College. I enjoy encouraging others to play the sport that has been good to me through my time at St. Bede’s. I will gain a lot seeing how the boys I coach develop throughout the year as individuals and players. I’m sure it will be a rewarding experience for myself and the boys.”

Jack Ryan: “I have been very keen to coach ever since I first heard about the opportunity for senior students to coach junior rugby at St. Bede’s. I wish to bring to the U14Bs team this year a fun and positive environment that will help grow the boys’ love of rugby. I am eager to gain valuable team coaching skills that I hope to be able to apply later on in life. I hope that this season will be an enjoyable one for both myself and the players.”

Ben Fleming: “The reason I took up coaching this year is because of the enjoyment and the positive experiences that my peers took out of their seasons being coached by students. Whilst I was not coached by students, I sensed the lasting positive impact student coaches had on my peers as they look back on the best things they experienced at the College. As a coach, I hope to inject positive energy into the team and offer my knowledge gained over my years of playing rugby at St. Bede’s. What I seek to achieve is a successful season in developing the players, to be able to create a positive experience for the boys and overall just have a bit of fun.”

The boys will be well-prepared. A CRFU coach-developer, Nathan Brown, will mentor the student coaches during the 2020 season. In addition, mental skills coach Renzie Hanham has been asked to talk to the boys about 'successful coaching' based on his observations through decades of working with coaches in many different sports. We look forward to providing the student coaches with a great start to the season.

Nathan Brown: (CRFU Coach-Developer) “When I decided to leave the workforce and complete a Bachelor of Sport Coaching my goal for beyond graduation was to become a professional coach. This is still a goal of mine, but I have learnt in my two and a bit years of study that I really love the art of coaching and developing practices to improve how teams are coached. I plan to support St Bede's Rugby by working with the student coaches to help them up-skill to deliver a really good service to the athletes they will be coaching.”