MOREE’S Darryl Sharpley, along with 19 others have been hand picked for the NSW Under 16s Indigenous Squad for NSW Rugby League.
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The squad will play the opening game at the ‘All Stars’ match at Suncorp Stadium in Queensland on February 13.
At the age of 15, Sharpley was chosen by selectors when they saw him at a high school football match.
Sharpley attends Endeavour Sports High School in Sydney and plays for the St George Dragons.
He is very dedicated with training and school work.
“Training with St George is very hard. I train and play five days a week and I’m always up early to go to school. Training is really important, if I wasn’t training I would just sit at home,” he said.
The team selectors found 60 boys to play for the NSW under 16s Indigenous Squad and all needed to attend a week long football camp. On the last day four teams had to play each other and from there Sharpley was selected.
“Two weeks later they had chosen their team and I was lucky enough to be one of the 20 players selected.”
He said that the most exciting part of being part of the team was being with all of the boys and playing before the indigenous All Stars. Sharpley will have a chance to meet his favourite All Star player Justin Hodges when all members of the Under-16s Indigenous Squad receive their jerseys.
“The hardest part of being part of the team is being away from home. The training is pretty hard because they concentrate a lot on fitness.”
Coming in to the game Sharpley is feeling pretty nervous.
“The Queensland players are all pretty big boys, I have played against them once before and it was pretty hard. The last game ended in a draw.”
His mother, Marlene Sharpley, said she was very happy for her son.
“Our whole family is glad he got picked,” she said.
“We hope he makes it far with NRL. We will get to watch him play his game. We try to make it to every game that he plays.”
In the future Sharpley will finish school in Sydney. He wants to continue playing NRL and become a mechanic.