On Thursday 27th November, Australian cricketer Brad Hogg came to meet and inspire Clarkson students. Nearly 200 students gathered in the auditorium to hear him speak. It was a very sad day as Brad's close friend and team mate Phillip Hughes had just passed away, and Brad began his talk by apologising if he became emotional. He was pure inspiration.
Brad shared his story, with its many achievements and disappointments, and made it clear to all the students that no matter what, with the determination to go on, and someone in the wings as support, there is nothing that cannot be achieved, even for a young boy from the country.
Brad told the students “If you have a goal or something you want to achieve in your life, start doing something about it today. Go home and research it and find out what it’s going to take for you to get there.”
“Whenever I face a challenge, or something goes wrong I just go and look in the mirror and I ask myself, ‘what are you going to do about it?’ because I know that ultimately it’s up to me. Everyone around you can help you and support you, and those friends are really important, but when it comes down to it you are the only one that can take action to make your own life better.”
Brad related this to the story of when he got dumped from the test team, and then didn’t get selected for Shield cricket and was playing in the A grade. He did something stupid while he was batting and the wicket keeper said, ‘Mate what are you doing? You’ll end up in B grade if you keep going this way.’
Brad said, “I went home that night and rang up a specialist batting coach and a specialist bowling coach to help me and practiced harder every day because I wanted to get back to Test cricket. That wicket keeper was right. If I kept being a fool and blaming everyone else, I would end up in B grade and never get back to the top, so I had to take action.”
Brad pointed out that every teacher in the room was there to support the students and that they should all support each other, not to mention the family support that many would have at home. He showed us his "baggy green cap" and striped blazer from the Australian team representation, which of course, much to the amusement of the gathering, Paddy tried on.
As a CHAT (Changing Health Acting Together) initiative, Brad's visit went a long way to help students reaffirm faith in themselves, as he shared some thought provoking ideas about resilience, determination and the rewards that can be gained through effort.
With humour, sincerity and just the right amount of emotion Brad delivered a valuable lesson.?? His humility in making himself available to speak with parents and individual students at the end, and to sign autographs and take photos, endeared him even more to the audience, many of whom were reluctant to leave at the end.
Our sincere thanks to Brad Hogg, for his inspirational words, and to SDERA for making the visit possible.
Di Campbell, Physical Education Coordinator
Photo: Di Campbell, Paddy Rooney and Brad Hogg