By Abbey Cannan
The Noosa Pirates Rugby League Club has had on-going success with their Young Gun Program over the past four years, with boys learning the meaning of loyalty, mateship, respect and teamwork.
The Young Gun Program is an initiative of the Noosa Pirates Club and is aimed at local boys aged between 13 and 17 years who learn Rugby League skills as well as life skills.
The group fund-raises throughout the year to fund their end-of-program trip to Sydney.
The program began in 2015 to provide resources and support for young men during what is a time of significant personal growth and development, as well as help the participants aim high and achieve their personal goals.
Noosa Pirates committee member Tony Rutledge said the program has been a continuing success, with different age groups of the boys starting to look out for each other.
“We think mateship is really important because teenagers can feel really peer-pressured into certain things at that age.”
“We’ve had great success in the program, with two boys that previously went through the program now enrolled in university, with one studying to be a doctor and one studying sports-science.”
The program isn’t a representative team, but is there to expose participants to a variety of training to not only improve their rugby league skill set but to also improve their general level of health and well-being.
The highlight of the program is a trip to Sydney where players between 14 and 16 years go behind the scenes of local NRL clubs to learn about professional and sporting opportunities.
“When we go to Sydney, we have access to four Rugby League clubs. The NRL clubs have far better resources than we do so the boys get education programs where they learn about education in diet, leadership development, job opportunities, as well as discussions around the effects of drugs and alcohol,” Tony said.
“During our last trip to Sydney, we took the boys to visit the homeless people in Martin Place to give the boys an insight to how lucky they really are. We’re going to start working with Orange Sky Laundry on the Coast so that they boys can learn about giving back to the community.”
The next program will kick off in June, with the Sydney trip taking place around the Easter holidays.
“We’ve had great long-term sponsors like the Tewantin-Noosa RSL and Orchard Joinery and we’re always looking for more sponsors to get on board,” he said.
To help fund the program, the Noosa Pirates are calling on the local business community to help sponsor the program for the teens.
Anyone who would like to participate in the program or help sponsor the program can contact Tony Rutledge by calling 0417 244 259 or emailing trutledge@gmx.com.
