This Friday 3rd December is International Day of People with Disability. Throughout the week we will be sharing content that promotes inclusion and celebrates the achievements within our rugby league community.
This year the Score Raiders team participated in the local Under 14s competition, playing against teams like the Bungendore Tigers, Queanbeyan Kangaroos and South Tuggeranong Knights.
Ben Cunningham from the Disability Trust said the opportunity for the Score Raiders was very exciting and that they all really enjoyed playing against the Under 14s teams.
“The local league teams involved showed great sportsmanship and it was wonderful to see the young men learn how to work with people living with a disability,” Cunningham said.
“It was also a great learning curve for the Score Raiders participants to learn how to play hard and not win all the time.
“Thank you to the CRRL and the local league teams involved for being very accommodating for our Score Raiders team.”
Bungendore Tigers Under 14s coach Brett White said that having the Score Raiders in the competition was very powerful and gave the players opportunities to grow.
“Being an Under 14s coach, or any coach, you always look for opportunities to grow people as people, not just as a player. Coaching an Under 14s team, that was probably the main reason why I do it is to grow these kids,” White said.
“When we had the opportunity to play against the Score team, I thought that it was the perfect opportunity to really help these kids grow as people and be involved in this.”
White said that on the match day it was wonderful to see the acceptance and how the juniors played against the Score team.
“It’s great to have that exposure to it and for the Under 14s, they’re at an impressionable age and to show that this is the right thing to do, to be involved and support teams like the Score Raiders is great.”
“A couple of weeks later we played another game in Queanbeyan and the Score team was playing after us. We had the opportunity to line up and do the Viking Clap and clap them onto the field.
"That happened a number of times throughout the season, so a real connection grew between the Bungendore Under 14s and the Score Raiders team.”
The Score Raiders team will be playing in the Under 14s competition again next season. They are also organising their annual matches against the Score Dragons team for 2022, with matches set to be played at GIO Stadium in Canberra and WIN Stadium in Wollongong.
There are currently over 25 active participants in the Score Raiders program.
The team train weekly and play matches in the local competition and against other disability teams.
The program aligns with the school terms all year round, with training sessions on Monday afternoons.
For more information on the Score Raiders program, visit https://www.disabilitytrust.org.au/
