This year, there will be some young Canadian talent joining the Hampton Rovers in Melbourne's VAFA. Four recent recruits to the Ontario Australian Football League will be heading downunder to play the 2011 season in suburban footy.
The journey started back in October 2009, when Jaye Macumber, coach of the Central Blues AFC in Canada and current coach of Team Canada, was looking to recruit some new, young talent for his football club. After contacting Canadian company The Aussie X, he was able to arrange for his club to participate in a week long program at a local high school in Toronto, Neil McNeil HS.
The Central Blues' reigning 2009 Best and Fairest winner and former Hampton Rovers' star Ruck-Rover Daniel Andersen was working for The Aussie X at the time and was in charge of running the program and teaching the Neil McNeil students the game of Australian Football.
Macumber and two representatives from the Central Blues took some time off work and went participate at Neil McNeil HS. Their goal was to get the contact details for as many young men as possible, in an attempt to have them join the Central Blues squad for the 2010 season.
Several students stood out over the course of the program. During the final day one particular student, Victor Cinco, took an amazing grab over the pack on the wing and then immediately played on running and bouncing his way down the left side of the field.
Fast forward 12 months and the Central Blues had just fielded 10 Neil McNeil High School students in their Division 1 and 2 Grand-Final teams on October 2nd, with the previously mentioned Cinco playing a leading role in the club's first ever Division One premiership.
A few days after the grand final, Macumber met with the mothers of Earl Monero, Arnold Quirong and Victor Cinco, as well as their sons. He suggested the boys head to Australia once they graduated High School in December 2010 to have a gap year playing football in Melbourne to improve their game. After many, many questions the mothers of the boys agreed with the idea to send their sons to Australia to play the strange game of Australian Football.
A further week later Macumber was talking to another OAFL player from the Toronto Rebels Australian football club, Jovan Love, who also expressed an interest in joining the boys at Hampton Rovers for the 2011 season.
Three of the young men have now booked their flights and have got their 12 month working holiday Visa's and will be arriving into Melbourne on February 15th for a year of footy with the Hampton Rovers footy club in the VAFA.
They received a massive bonus for their trip when Toronto philanthropist Martin Walter (pictured below with Jovan Love) agreed to donate $1000 each towards the boys' trip to Australia to assist them with the cost of their airfares.
Monero's working holiday visa is proving a little challenging, as he is traveling on a St. Lucian passport while he awaits his Canadian citizenship in September 2011. However, he is hoping to find an Australian company to sponsor him so he can work in Australia when he is not playing footy.
The other young men, while all Canadian citizens, have all came from quite different backgrounds, Quirong coming from a Filipino family, Love is a Jamaican while Cinco was born in Venezuela. There is some more info on the boys backgrounds at the Hampton Rovers website.
All four young men are currently on the look-out for accommodation around the Sandringham area of Melbourne and are all willing to live separately or be billeted with a family. All four young men are also on the hunt for work, so please contact the Hampton Rovers if you think you may be able to assist the boys on their 2011 football adventure.
Article courtsey of www.worldfootynews.com
Last Modified on 31/01/2011 09:38
