With this being the end of the season for Noosa Pirates Rugby League Club, Head Coach Michael Duff has graciously taken the time to make a personal note regarding the season just finished.
‘’We had a great finish to the season with our annual awards night at Pirate Park. Congratulations to all award winners. The club player of the year Rohan Messer has been a massive inclusion for our club over the last two seasons with his outstanding leadership and culture. The A grade best and fairest was our club captain Kris Williams, who sadly at seasons has decided to retire.
I was very happy to see Kris finish his footy career here at his junior club. Kris will be leaving big shoes to fill for whoever takes on the captain’s role in 2025. Personally, I would like to thank my assistant coaches, Anthony Zipf, Phil Bergman and Tim Payne, manager Les Warria, and trainer Linda Buchanan. Their continued support made my job a lot easier. I am extremely proud of all our club players and where we finished the season in each grade.
Let us all enjoy the break over the next few months before we start planning for the 2025 season: and hoping to go one better in all grades. Also, I would like to express my thanks to all who worked for this great club throughout the season’’ Michael personality amongst all involved on training nights, certainly set a positive and happy atmosphere for the season ahead. The fact that all three senior grades, the A’s, Reserve and Cs, made the finals speaks for itself. If the continued support for the club at major home games continues into 2025 season, we can be assured that the existing culture will only go from strength to strength.
Jiu-Jitsu
Recently Noosa’s CAZA Brazilian Jit-Jitsu Club travelled to Caloundra to contest the Sunshine Coast Open Jiu-Jitsu Championships. Held at the Caloundra Indoor Stadium, it was yet another successful tournament for the Noosa Club. With a total of483 competitors from 24 clubs, CAZA Noosa had 38 competitors take to the mats: contesting both categories Gi (Grappling with traditional gear) and No- Gi (Grappling with shorts and rashie).
For CAZA they took 1st place with 10 competitors 201 points in Male Gi: 7 gold 1 silver 1 bronze. First place with 9 competitors 180 points No-Gi: 6 gold 1 silver, 3 bronze. Second place Kids ,585 points,17 Gi competitors, 18 No-Gi. 18 gold,9 silver 6 bronze. For the Women’s Gi 3rd place with 54 points 3 competitors,1 gold 3 silver. This saw CAZA finish with 33 gold 14 silver and 10 bronze an outstanding effort
Amongst the CAZA gold medal winners’ men: Andrew Bailey3, Takara Van Wyk 2, James Strachan 2, Cameron Kitcher 2, Dante Guerra 2, Jack Harrison 1and Pierce Ludvigsen 1. Women Oriana Erbanova 1and Katie Chandler1. In the kid’s division Joel Millar 2, Jordan Van Der Walt 2, Nadan Patina 2, Lily-May Cuthbert 2 and Cassius Osborne 2.
For Josh Millar, Sean Greason, Airo Arkhipov, Charlotte Swart, Tayte Beck, Logan Eben, Kingsley Siddons and Vihan De Silver all succeeded in winning the gold
A highlight for the event occurred when Mother and Son duo, Oriana Erbenova and son Logan both won gold medals. Once again it’s a big well done to Professor Yoshi Hasegawa and his coaching staff.
Shotokan Karate.
Once again, members of Karate Noosa, World Shotokan Karate – do Federation (WSKF), in particular Bryan Dukas sensei and Morney Plescia sensei, attended training seminars in Sydney from the 25-29 September. With two top Japanese international instructors, Murakami sensei and Kanazawa sensei, conducting the seminars, the many techniques and training methods past on were of the highest standard: the type of training that would be highly beneficial to the students back at home.
“The seminars comprise basic kata and kumite training, all of which is of the utmost importance in developing good karate.” A big reason for Karate Noosa’s extremely high international standard, is because Bryan Dukas sensei is always looking at ways to improve his own karate, which in turn he passes on to his students. In March 2025 Bryan sensei will be taking a small group tp Japan for training and Japanese culture development. As we go to press Karate Noosa have two students at the WKF World Championships in Italy: and we are looking forward to hearing of their experiences on their return.
For those interested in joining the club classes are held on Tuesday, Thursday 4pm and Saturday 8am at the Noosaville State School Hall 75 Beckman’s Rd. On Wednesday classes are held at the Good Shepard Lutheran College starting at 5.30pm.
Little Athletics.
The Public Relations team from Noosa Little Athletics have been keeping us up to date.
The 2024 Coles Little Athletics National Camp was recently held at the Gold Coast Performance Centre in Runaway Bay over four days. Two Noosa athletics were selected on their individual performances at the 2024 Coles Australian Little Athletics Championships. Taya Clayton was selected for sprint hurdles and Marlon Andrews for the 400m.
There were 78 top-performing Little Athletes from across Australia invited to attend. The camp was designed to offer each athlete an opportunity to improve on the track including preparation, recovery, psychology and acquire a better understanding of the journey and process that Is required to assist with their own development in the high-performance pathway.
There were current and former Australian International athletes coaching and presenting as well as sharing their own experiences and their journeys from juniors to international representation. Athletes partaking in the camp had their sights on Brisbane 2032 with many likely to be Australian Olympic Athletes competing in the 2032 Olympics. The 2024 Coles Little Athletics Camp was an essential part of the future of the sport.
Olympic gold Medallist Glynis Nunn OAM who is the driving force behind the camp since it began 12 years ago said, “I am always very pleased to be able to contribute to the development of up-and-coming Little Athletics and look forward to meeting them at the camp. Nothing gives me more pleasure than to see Little Athletics performing at their best and enjoying themselves at the same time.
Taya Clayton was coached by reigning three times Australian Heptahlon champion and Birmingham Commonwealth Games Athlete, Taneille Crase who encouraged Taya to strive for bigger goals and continue working on her technique and impressive speed. Marlon Andrews was coached by professional athlete Ian Halpin.
Ian has been a member of the Australian track team since 2019 and has worked with Marlon to enhance his block starts and the different techniques to run the gruelling 400 mt distance. Both Taya and Marlon said that meeting athlete from other states including coaches was really exciting and team bonding was a great way to build friendship with like-minded athletes. With the Little Athletics 2024/25 season now under way all of our Noosa Athletics will continue to shine at weekly competition nights and upcoming carnivals.
Seahorse Nippers
From Seahorse Nippers Chairman Steve Mawby and assistant Nickie Mawby, comes the following information. “Thanks to all who assisted on Saturday 28 September for our first Seahorse Nippers. However, we are still looking for more volunteers to assist the program. Program 1 will be 5, 12 and 19 October.”
Each participant requires at least one supporter: with the program running from 8-9am. Water safety officers and Lifesavers will be required from 7-9am. To register your assistance please text your full name and award type to 0408 478 831 or follower the link to register. Click here to volunteer. Also, thanks to Big Pete and the bus boys: and the ongoing thanks to Noosa Shire Council for their support for the use of the Lions Park.
