A rising star of the Benalla sports scene will receive funding from the Benalla Young Sportspersons Trust so he can chase his hockey dreams.
The Benalla Tigers’ Noah Gillies will represent Victoria in the Under-14 Hockey Championships being held in Perth from September 29 to October 5.
Gillies has amazed this season with his performances in the Goulburn Valley Hockey Association's under-16 A-grade and men’s B-grade competitions, scoring 60 goals in just 26 regular-season matches.
Gillies’s impressive performances continued when he represented the GVHA at the Victorian Junior Country Championships, from where he progressed to compete with the North West Lightning in the Junior State Championships.
His abilities impressed Victorian coaches enough to select him and the Benalla Young Sportspersons Trust to support him.
Trust spokesperson Bill Sykes said he was impressed by both Gillies’s achievements on the pitch and his attitude off it.
“I first heard about Gillies through the article the Ensign did on him in August, and it appeared to me that young Noah was giving his best efforts and being successful because of it.”
Sykes said Gillies is the type of young person the Benalla Young Sportspersons Trust seeks to support.
The sacrifice to be the best is high for the Gillies family, with Noah travelling down to Melbourne every Wednesday night and Sunday morning for the past six weeks.
The cost is just as significant, with Gillies having to fundraise to ensure he can attend the competition.
The $1000 donated by the trust will go a long way to making his dreams a reality.
The trust, first set up in 1992 by then-Benalla Ensign editor Stephen Oxley, has a long history of supporting the district’s finest athletes competing in sports at a regional, state, national or international level.
Cyclist Baden Cooke and footballer Tom Rockcliff are among the countless athletes the trust has supported.
Athletes wishing to apply need to be a Benalla resident under 21 years of age.
Application forms can be requested at billsykes48@me.com