The Power Cup has generated major changes in the life of Mark Oliphant College (MOC) student, Cullum Coffee.
His teacher, Mr Brodie Cheeseman said Callum, “was interested in everything but the work at hand, he promised he’d have work done next lesson, only for the next lesson to arrive and no work still had been completed.”
But things then suddenly changed. To participate in the Power Cup, Cullum had to meet various schoolwork targets and with the assistance of schoolteachers, family and friends he reached the KPIs and was permitted to enter.
Mr Cheeseman said that “He was so reluctant to go to Power cup, the night before we left, he dropped his permission slip off to me, being sarcastic and joking about how much he loved footy and couldn’t wait to go.”
“So, when we arrived at Power Cup, the students get their boots on, find the oval for our first game and get into handball and kicking lanes.”
“Callum comes up and says that he wants to play down back if he has to play.”
“I was thinking I’ll put him on for a couple minutes and call him off once he starts getting bored with it all. This never happened.”
“Once the siren rang, Callum switched on.”
“Callum was a machine out there, he was chasing people down, landing big tackles and clearing the ball out whenever we needed.”
“Everybody was shocked,” exclaimed Mr Cheeseman.
But this appeared to be only the beginning of Cullum’s personal growth.
Mr Cheeseman said it was rare for Callum to speak in South Australian Aboriginal Sports Academy activities, let alone participate in group activities.
“After this game Callum started to take a leadership role, he was speaking to others and myself, letting us know what needed to happen on the field,” said Mr Cheeseman.
“Over a span of two days Cullum went from a student who did not want to attend, to a young man who made a choice to participate to the fullest, giving everything a go and being an outspoken leader who was uplifting and supporting to his team mates.”
Along with being a leader at Power Cup, Callum has excelled at Ice Hockey as well. Callum started learning to skate and play hockey after joining the Ice Factor program in 2020.
Through his dedication and love of playing, Callum was selected to join and be a representative of Australia's first Indigenous ice hockey team, the Kaurna Boomerangs.
As part of this team, Callum and other Indigenous players formed strong friendships that ended up taking them to Canada.
Callum is currently training to represent Indigenous Australians in a New Zealand competition to be held later this year.
In addition to this, Callum is also a mentor for the students participating in MOC's Ice Factor this year, sharing his knowledge, excitement and support.
Local Member of Parliament, Mr Tony Piccolo met Cullum recently at a Reconciliation Week event organised by his school.
“The changes in Cullum demonstrate how important it is to have “school life” that meets the needs of every aspect of a young person’s education,” said Mr Piccolo.
“In this case, a sporting activity has ignited Cullum’s passion and his whole education will benefit from it.”
“We should never underestimate the power of passion.”