Karratha was abuzz with activity earlier this week when the RugbyWA Development team spent four days in the area promoting rugby union and visiting the local schools.
The town, already celebrating NAIDOC Week, officially opened the Frank Butler Community Centre on Sunday and had family-friendly activities such as face-painting and a sausage sizzle to compliment RugbyWA’s visiting Emirates try-line tussle and skills clinic.
Development Officer Geoff Deere and Bankwest Junior Competition Coordinator Richard Thelan were joined by Emirates Western Force prop Kieran Longbottom as they visited three schools to promote rugby union.
“The reaction we got was fantastic and they were very appreciative of us making the journey up there,” said Deere.
“On Monday we had a school visit at Karratha Senior High School where we conducted three sessions for the Year 10’s and 11’s.
“We did some balance and stability exercises as well as some catch and pass activities which they were quite good at. We also did a game of touch for about 15 minutes and then we got them on the Emirates try-line tussle.
“On Tuesday we did another three sessions at Tambrey Primary School and on Wednesday we had Millars Well Primary School, and another three sessions there.
“We had warm-up games, rugby octopus and then we did some catching and passing skills. We played lots of touch rugby games, tag and then we got them on the Emirates try-line tussle at the end which they all enjoyed, and some of the parents joined in too.”
Though many of the kids in the region play rugby league, Deere said that the students really enjoyed the clinic and they went away with improved skills.
“Hopefully in the coming years we can get something up and running to give them an avenue to try and play some rugby union so they can transfer to some of our other competitions.”