Reach for sky: Sport stars share wisdom with Airlie students
AFL player Mason Cox and international netballer Geva Mentor pay a visit to Cannonvale State School.
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TWO stars from the sporting world dropped in to Cannonvale State School on Wednesday to share wisdom with students.
AFL player Mason Cox, who plays for Collingwood, and netballer Geva Mentor CBE, who plays with the Collingwood Magpies and England Roses, spent time telling students how they came to play in their respective sports.
Mentor started out in the sporting world through a somewhat unconventional pastime – trampolining.
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Growing up near the coast in England, she played lots of sports including sailing and kayaking before discovering netball at 14.
She credited trying different hobbies with building her different skills, saying a sport like gymnastics helped her build a strong core, which held her in good stead in her career today.
“It’s important you play lots of different sports,” she said.
“It definitely helped me.”
Mentor said one of the highlights of her career had been winning a gold medal with the English netball team at the Gold Coast Commonwealth Games in 2018 against Australia.
But playing sport had also helped her make new friends and allowed her to explore the beauty of Queensland and Australia, she said.
Cox said he was the second American to play AFL and hadn’t even heard of the game, or Melbourne, until he was scouted while in college studying engineering.
He now plays as a forward and ruckman with the Collingwood Magpies and is a long way from his home of Dallas, Texas.
When asked how he handled challenging situations on the field and off, Cox paid tribute to his friends for helping him through tough times.
“If I’ve had a bad game or something, I go around to their place and have dinner and just feel like a normal person,” he said.
“It’s important to have that support network.”
The sporting stars have been travelling around Queensland and dropped in to the Whitsundays to enjoy some of the highlights of the region including snorkelling and exploring the Great Barrier Reef.
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