School’s back and Australian Sports Camps have just concluded another successful school holidays!  This Winter, we ran over 50 camps with thousands of happy participants across the country.  It was great to see everyone having fun, while challenging themselves and showing dedication and improvement. We would like to thank everyone for coming along to join us, including children, coaches and guest talent.  Our Coaching Directors and Heroes have elite level playing experience behind them! Which always proves to be valuable for our participants. Tom Fields was our Coaching Director for the three-day AFL camp in Marion.  He is a former professional AFL player from the Carlton Football Club.  He was joined by ASC Heroes, Richard Douglas (Adelaide Football Club) and Brad Ebert (Port Adelaide Football Club).

NSW

NSW participants had the chance to work with the current Greater Western Sydney Giants co-captain.  Over in Queensland, we had former Brisbane Lions Football player Daniel Merrett join our experienced coaching staff.  In WA, we were joined by Karl Langdon and Andrew Embley. Both are former players of the West Coast Eagles, and also Brad Hill from the Fremantle Dockers.

Victoria

In Victoria, we were very fortunate to welcome many talented guest stars: Karen Paxman (Melbourne Football Club), Harry Taylor (Geelong Football Club), Christian Petracca (Melbourne Football Club), Robbie Tarrant (North Melbourne Football Club), Lynden Dunn (Collingwood Football Club) and Kevin Sheedy (Super Coach & Essendon legend). Former Melbourne City FC player, Wade Dekker, was our Coaching Director for the Soccer camps in Bulleen and Hampton.  Before sustaining an ankle-injury, which resulted in him missing 11 months and being released by the club, he was described as one of Manchester City FC’s brightest young talents.  He is a talented striker, and won the National Youth League Golden Boot award as the competition’s top goal scorer in the season before signing with Manchester City FC. Over in Kensington, Massimo Murdocca was the Coaching Director for our three-day Soccer camp.  He currently plays for Avondale FC in the Victorian National Premier League.  A diminutive midfield general, he is a dual Hyundai A-League championship winner and joined the club in 2013.  He has played close to 300 top-flight games, starting as a 15-year-old at Carlton Soccer Club in the NSL before success with South Melbourne FC and Brisbane Roar FC, finishing with Melbourne City.  He won the NSL Premiership at South Melbourne in 2000/2001 and at Brisbane, he won the 2011 and 2012 A-League Grand Finals as well as the 2010/2011 Premiership.

Guest Talent

Guest talent:

• Jai Ingham (Melbourne Victory)
• Shaun Murphy (Australian Olympian, Sheffield United and Perth Glory)
• Tarek Elrich (Adelaide United)
• Jamie Young (Brisbane Young)
• Bai Antoniou (Sydney FC) and
• Caitlin Munoz (Canberra United) also supported our coaching panels at our Soccer camps across the country.

Our aspiring hockey stars in Hawthorn, Victoria had Waseem Ahmad as their Coaching Director, and Doubleview attendees had Joshua Beltz. One of the best left halves in the world is Waseem Ahmad, who was also the captain of the Pakistani Hockey Team! He holds the record for playing the second highest number of internationals of all time.  Josh Beltz is another product of the successful Tasmanian Institute of Sport scholarship program, having been selected to play for the Australian Kookaburras in the Oceania Cup in New Zealand.   He describes himself as a good defender, but believes the key to success in Hockey is to develop skills in all areas, and to be an all-rounder. Kate Hollywood (Australia) and Tim Deavin (Australia) also attended our camps.  All our Hockey camp guest talent and Coaching Directors have played in the Olympics and passed on their knowledge of the game from the highest level.

basketball

Jess Bibby was the coaching director for our Basketball camp in Canberra.  She is one of the most influential female athletes in Australian sport, having played a massive 394 games over her 20-year career. This is the most games ever played in the WNBL! And she has won several championships.  Bibby was a guard for the Canberra Capitals in the Women’s National Basketball League and, before that, played for the Dandenong Rangers. Amy Lewis (Brisbane Capital), Mick Downer (25-years of experience in basketball as a player, coach, administrator, manager and director, from local to professional levels), Mollie McKendrick (Southern Tigers), Igor Hadziomerovic (former Melbourne United player) and Louis Timms (Wayland Baptist’s USA) also assisted in developing the skills of our Basketballers at various Australian Sports Camps Basketball camps.

Netball

Australian Diamond netball- players and squad members attended our various netball camps across the country.  In NSW, we had guest talent Abbey McCulloch (NSW Swifts) use her experience as Co-Captain, and her secondary teaching qualification, to work with the next generation of netballers.  Sepi Hawke (One Netball Ambassador) was a great addition to our Canberra camp! And West Coast Fever players Kaylia Stanton, Shannon Eagland and Courtney Bruce joined us in Claremont and Churchlands in WA.  Gretel Tippett (Queensland Firebirds) was our guest talent at our Queensland camps, while Karyn Bailey (Adelaide Thunderbirds) and Maddy Proud (NSW Swifts) worked with the Marion participants.  At our various Victorain camps, Melbourne Vixens stars Kate Moloney, Emily Mannix and Jo Weston joined our expert coaching panels.

What else did we have?!

In NSW, ACT and QLD we ran Rugby Union camps. Tom Staniforth (ACT Brumbies) and Tom Cusack (Australian Rugby Sevens player) joined us at some of the camps too! Over in WA, kids developed their skills in Rugby League. This Winter, we ran our very first ‘Experience Karate and Martial Arts’ camp.  Experienced and accredited black-belt Karate coaches, Christella Vu (5th Dan Black Belt) and Scott Taylor (4^th Dan Black Belt), attended the camp. To read more about any of our Heroes, please view their profiles here. Thanks again to everyone who joined us these Winter school holidays.  We look forward to seeing you next time! Australian Sports Camps staff members, coaches and guest stars are passionate about supporting players of all ages and abilities to take their game to the next level and aim to better our programs each and every season. Bookings for our Spring camps will be opening soon, so keep an eye out for our early booking offer. For news, photos, competitions and more, follow us on our blog, and social media channels, Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. For questions regarding our camps and all other enquiries, please contact us on 1300 914 368 or at admin@australiansportscamps.com.au.  We’re always happy to help.