Samuel Saunders

I have previously refereed a full OzTag summer, and multiple Touch Football gala days. This meant making fast decisions under pressure and positively communicating with the teams whilst enforcing the game.

Captaining my school cricket team allowed me to lead a group by myself and helped with my teamwork skills. As the coach is not a part of the game, the captain decides fields and who is bowling and communicates with the game officials. This experience made me think fast and under pressure, which is a skill that transferred out of cricket as well. I stopped doing this role to pursue rugby league as a primary sport.

After starting rugby league in U12, I was made team captain at the beginning of U14. I am still the captain and will likely continue doing this long term. This experience has increased my confidence leading groups as well as giving me the skills of boosting team morale and teamwork throughout the players.

As I formerly captained a Burgmann Cricket team, last season Burgmann asked me to step in as a last-minute replacement student coach to train the players throughout the week. This was temporary as I told Burgmann I was committed to my Rugby League team when training started for that, though I thoroughly enjoyed doing this and will likely coach a full season next summer.