WENDELL HUSSEY | Cadet | CONTACT
With the long awaited Paris Olympics finally rolling around, towns, suburbs and regions all over Australia are joyfully seeing their names on the Olympics LIVE map.
And, like many other parts of the country this week, the Illawarra region is beaming with pride – particularly at the opportunity to earn a few bragging rights over the snobby Northerners in Sydney.
One place in particular that is absolutely humming is the Illawarra Stingrays Football Club, who have excitedly set their alarms for eye-wateringly early times that start with a 2 and end with an AM.
This comes as the proud organization based in the heart of Wollongong prepares to cheer on their Tillie girls, in a crucial make or break clash with the United States.
The club that boasts products like Caitlin Foord, Mary Fowler and Michelle Heyman, said they are itching to see their juniors put a couple past the Yanks – even if it means consuming copious amounts of caffeine in the proceeding 48 hours.
Speaking to The Advocate about the early starts, veteran Stingrays player Laura Cooper said she’s running on low power mode.
“1am, 3am, whatever, I don’t care,” laughed Cooper, who’s watching the Matildas’ games from the Stingrays Olympics hub aka (Olympics LIVE @ Illawarra Stingrays).
“Just need a couple of naps at work haha.”
“The World Cup, and now the Paris Olympics with a generational team? This is as good as the mighty 2009-11 Stingrays ThreePeat.”
“When we won the last title without Michelle, after she got called into the Tillies team at the last minute.”
“JJ Kelly Park to the Paris Olympics.”
“That’s better than Chickos if you ask me.”
At that point one of the old heads piped up to claim credit for teaching Michelle the art of the back heel.
“You know that back heel against Zambia the other night? I taught her that and she went on to win our Stingrays Golden Boot the same year. I don’t want to take credit for where she is today, but…” she trailed off.
“I will haha.”
“Let’s go girls!”
