The Building Futures Program celebrated the future stars of sport at its inaugural dinner by donating $11,500 of prize money to the top 10 applicants.
With the prize pool initially planned to be $8,000 the addition of $500 of funding for the 4th to 10th place getters came as a surprise to all attendees.
UKL’s Terry Seirlis, founder of the program said, the quality of the applicants had blown him out of the water, and he thought that they all deserved to win a prize.
“I was stunned by the talent of the top 10 and decided on the night that each one of them should get rewarded for their abilities,” Mr Seirlis said.
“Warwick has a huge future in sport with these athletes and it is a privilege to be a part of that.”
Winning 1st place was Lesleigh Vincent.
Lesleigh has spent many years playing for and representing Warwick in many sports including football, netball and polocrosse.
Her polo crosse skills have seen her star in many competitions and have given her hope that she will one day play in a polo crosse World Cup just like the one in Warwick not too long ago.
Lesleigh’s polocrosse coach stated that “Lesleigh has really excelled over the last few years”.
“She has become a leader for our team and her ability to command the field is second to none.
“I believe that one day she will make it to the top level of this sport.”
Lesleigh said that she was thrilled to win and had big plans for her share of the prize money.
“I will be donating half of the money to Scots PGC College, and I will be donating the other half to my local Warwick and Cunningham polocrosse clubs,” Lesleigh said.
In 2nd place is the young gun of cricket and hockey in Warwick, Samuel Bourke.
Sam has represented QLD in hockey for the last three years in a row and is hoping to be selected for a fourth time early next year.
Sam has represented the darling Downs many times for swimming and cricket, starting at the age of 9.
Sam’s goal is to play hockey or cricket for Australia one day and he would love to study them at the AIS.
The Warwick Hockey Association stated that “in terms of character and commitment, my view of Samuel has always been ’the next Australian captain’.
“He has the character and nature of the greats of sport.
“He is extremely coachable, a great teammate, and he gives every game and training session 100
Samuel said the money would go a long way in getting him more training and support in the sports he loves.
“One day I want to play for Australia so this money will help me get new equipment and to attend the elite training camps held in Brisbane,” Sam said.
The third-place prize of $1,000 went to Lilly Jones, a sporting all-rounder who has made great achievements in netball, swimming and shooting.
Lilly excels in all her sports, she has attended national shooting competitions, QLD state swimming sprints and represented Warwick for netball.
Her goal is to attend the next national shooting competition and to play netball for Australia.
The Warwick Netball Association stated that “Lilly shows an amazing amount of maturity on the court”.
“Her representation of Warwick netball is to be commended as she sets a great example for all the players to follow on and off the field.”
Lilly said she has already signed up for a swimming clinic in Brisbane that she would otherwise not have been able to attend.
“The prize money will help me to hone my skills and allow me to upgrade my old equipment,” Lilly said.
$500 was also given to the other seven applicants who narrowly missed out on making it into the top 3.
This included Amira Duffy, Alivia Hallman, Mark Hallman, Lochlann Hogan, Mikayla O’Neill, Ashley Petersen and Samuel Wainwright.
