ANOTHER successful New England Mutual National Rugby Camp will wrap up at UNE today.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
This year’s edition has attracted more than 300 campers and will conclude with a visit from Waratahs Paddy Ryan and Tala Gray.
Over the past couple of days, the participants have been brushing up on their skills and learning new ones under the watchful eyes of ARU development staff from around the state.
Among the campers is Central Coast’s Matt Kokegei.
The 14-year-old is the son of former Tamworth basketball star and coach Chris.
Matt followed in his footsteps for a while and was a junior basketball rep before rugby took over.
“He only stopped playing rep basketball when he started playing rep rugby,” Chris said.
It wasn’t feasible to do both.
“Rugby is his number one sport,” he said.
Probably one, two and three.
“He’s been playing rugby for five years now,” Chris said.
Last year he captained his Central Coast junior rep side and has this year made the Junior Gold 15s side.
He’ll pack in the front row for that but also plays a bit in the second row.
“He came to his first camp last year and absolutely loved it,” Chris said.
So much so that he made the comment that he didn’t care what he got for Christmas as long as he got to go to the camp.
He said going into last year he was “as nervous as anything”.
“But he learnt lots and it really lit a fire with him,” Chris said.
When he got back from it he asked Chris and wife Wendy whether he could get a personal trainer out of his pocket money to improve his agility.
He also played league last year to improve his tackling.
“He just loves it. He would train five days a week and play five days a week if he could,” Chris said.
Over his distinguished coaching career – he’s coached various state teams, Oceania teams and worked with the NSWIS basketball program – Chris has had a lot of involvement with camps and clinics and had high praise for the camp.
“This is one of the best-run things I’ve seen in junior sport,” he said.
He is helping out at the camp as a coach, as he did last year.
He also coaches the local Avoca Beach team, which he has been doing for three years.
