Beth helping spread the rugby word
ON some afternoons, there’ll be 30 footballs in the back of Beth Whaanga’s ute as she spreads the rugby gospel as one of the few female coaches in GPS schools history.
It tells you a lot about her organised methods that there’s a ball bag for her Brisbane State High 12As, another for her Gold Coast girls sevens teams. A third for her own kids.
It’s rugby seven days a week for the energised mother of four who has won a worthy nomination for the nationwide HSBC Rugby Volunteer of the Year award.
“I’m a little in shock but it’s really good to help break down some barriers,” Whaanga said of the only co-ed school in the GPS system.
Margariete Howard, wife of the late Wallaby Jake, was a trailblazer in GPS coaching roles for The Southport School, Nudgee College and State High from the late 1970s.
You’d think that Whaanga’s community coach role with the Queensland Rugby Union and 600km on the road each week would be enough but her volunteer input at BSHS shows her pure joy for the code.
“Having a dad who was a club president at grassroots level (Wollongbar Alstonville Rugby Club) meant our life as a family was in rugby when I was kid,” Whaanga said.