The most revered carnival on Armidale Cricket’s calendar is just weeks away and preparations are in full swing.
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The Walter Taylor Shield under 15s carnival is on from January 2 to 5 and teams from around the state will venture to Armidale to take part.
The Armidale team haven’t tasted success in a few years but the team for the coming tournament is looking strong.
They also have recruited some pretty handy coaches in Guyra duo Mitch Woods and BJ Cameron.
At 17-years-old it was only a couple of years ago that BJ was playing in the tournament.
He is hoping his experience will help guide the young team along.
“As I have been through these carnivals myself I hope to be able to pass on some knowledge of what is expected and required to be a competitive team against teams from around the state,” he said.
“Being around the same age as the playing group I feel as though I can relate to their situations as they are still fresh in my mind.”
The Guyra teen lives and breathes the sport and jumped at the opportunity to step into the co-coaching job.
“I took on this role to further my coaching experience, alongside a very experienced player and knowledgeable coach Mitch Woods,” BJ said.
“I also enjoy working with the playing group and watching them develop as cricketers as they are all willing to have a good go.”
Woods said he is just getting to know the players in the team but so far it looks promising.
He said BJ’s experience at representative cricket combined with his passion for the sport made it a good choice to get him to help mentor the kids.
“It was my idea to put BJ in. He is keen to make as much of a type of a career out of cricket and I thought it was something for him,” Woods said.
“He has done a lot of high level training with Northern Inland and the next level up.
“He is keen on his cricket which always helps. He played Walter Taylor a few years ago.”
Woods said his experience as a coach is limited but he hopes between him and BJ, they will have everything covered.
“I am more one-on-one mentoring than team, I give people pointers on how they can improve things if I see something,” he said.
“He [BJ] knows all the warm-up drills and all the training so that might be his possible side of the combination. We will just see what we are faced with when we come up against the sides.”
Squad: Tom Craig, Mitch Duddy, Ben Heagney, Sam Johnson, Mac Orr, Brock Parsons, James Phelps, Jonathan Phelps, Olly Schmude, Ryan Simpson, Hayden Schumacher, Henry Starr. Reserves-Margaret Conroy, Lachlan Hunt.
