GEELONG Buccaneers’ Ben Hulyer and Angus Limb will represent Australia for the first time in gridiron next week.<\/p>\n
The pair have been selected in the national under-18 American Football Squad to attend a week-long training camp on the Gold Coast, culminating in a game against New Zealand on July 12.<\/p>\n
They also play under-18 Australian rules, with Ben at Surf Coast Suns and Angus at Queenscliff.<\/p>\n
The close friends are thrilled to be going on the trip north.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m ecstatic, I’m nervous because I don’t want to mess anything up, but I’m excited more than anything,\u201d Ben said.<\/p>\n
\u201cI’ve been through all my gridiron years with Ben, so it’s great to be able to share the experience with him,\u201d Angus added.<\/p>\n
The teenagers represented Victoria in the recent national championships in Melbourne.<\/p>\n
Ben, a Surf Coast Secondary College Year 12 student, loves running and is a wide receiver.<\/p>\n
He said he got into the sport after his mum showed him an advertisement for the Buccaneers in the school newsletter.<\/p>\n
He went down to training and \u201cnever looked back\u201d.<\/p>\n
Angus, a defensive end, said he saw a Buccaneers\u2019 post \u201clooking for some of the biggest blokes in the Bellarine\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe figured that suited my brother (George) and I. So we went and did a tryout session and then it all went from there. I really enjoyed it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Angus said George, who now plays college gridiron in Canada, has been an inspiration.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s paved the way… I’d love to do exactly what he’s doing. I’d like to take my gridiron seriously and take it far, hopefully as a profession,\u201d the Bellarine Secondary College Year 12 said.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, the Buccaneers are running new player sessions as well as their pre-season.<\/p>\n
The seniors have already started and the juniors start on Wednesday, July 9.<\/p>\n
Training is on Wednesdays with junior sessions from 5.30pm to 7.30pm and the men\u2019s sessions from 6.30pm to 8.30pm at Hendy Street Reserve in Corio.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe pride ourselves on getting rookies who’ve never seen the sport before into pads and helmets and three or four weeks into what they’re doing, they’re different players; and then three or four months [later] in mid-season, they’re a different group as well,\u201d Buccaneers vice-president Phil Wrochna said.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo one of the things we do operate on really well is our ability to teach and our ability to make that transition from other sports into our sport.\u201d<\/p>\n
The season runs from September to December.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
GEELONG Buccaneers’ Ben Hulyer and Angus Limb will represent Australia for the first time in gridiron next week. The pair have been selected in the national under-18 American Football Squad to attend a week-long training camp on the Gold Coast, culminating in a game against New Zealand on July 12. They also play under-18 Australian […]<\/p>\n