Written by Hayden Cooper
My name is Hayden Cooper, and I’m currently studying a Bachelor of Education (K-12) with a major in Personal Development, Health, and Physical Education (PDHPE) at Charles Sturt University at the Albury-Wodonga campus.
I originally started at university as an Occupational Therapist (OT), however OT was not the course for me and I decided to make the change to teaching and love the course I am in now.
Being a teacher is very rewarding as I get the opportunity to watch the students grow and learn through what I have been able to teach them and help them achieve their goals.
I am currently in my second year of study and on my first placement as a teaching student while also juggling part-time SLSO work at a local school and becoming the director of a Before and After School care service as well. Spare time in my life is basically non-existent at the moment.
Throughout my time at university, I’ve had the incredible opportunity to balance my studies with my love for sport. I’ve also had many opportunities to represent Charles Sturt through sport.
Last year at Uni Nationals was the first experience I had at representing the University on a big stage.
There was a group of us boys from the Albury and Port Macquarie campus’ who had originally applied to play AFL at Uni Nationals. However, due to other universities pulling out of the competition late, we were given a choice to either withdraw from Uni Nationals or enter a Men’s touch team, so we accepted the offer to play touch football, (keeping in mind only about 3 of us had played any description of touch before this).
Day 1 of the event last year, we showed up to the field in AFL uniforms ready to learn a new sport at the biggest sporting event on the University calendar.
Safe to say we quickly figured out touch was not our greatest sport with an average losing margin of 11 tries per game, so we decided we may as well have some fun with it by creating chants and inspirational speeches for our women’s team who ended up finishing 3rd, but deserved 1st for training us and embracing our antics across the week.
Uni Nationals 2023 was one of the best weeks of my life highlighted by friendships made within our own group of students and the other universities, grass burns from playing a game of touch in just budgie smugglers, singing “You Belong with me” by Taylor Swift in the rain and getting about 50 people from other universities to join in with us, becoming poster boys for Charles Sturt (you’re welcome Kate and Soph) and coming back to do it all again this year!
I also run the Albury-Wodonga Social Sports on a Wednesday night which is great fun and a great excuse to get out of the house and have a run around with a great group of students at the campus.
We played mixed touch during the first session which was a success and have now started mixed netball, which again has been a hit.
I’m thrilled to announce that nominations for the 2024 Sports and Blues Awards are now open!
These awards celebrate the outstanding achievements of our university’s athletes, sports clubs, teams and sports programs. I encourage everyone who has made a mark in sport this year to apply.
It’s a fantastic way to recognise the dedication, hard work, and spirit of our sporting community! Click here to find out more
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