THE Power Cup has generated major changes in the life of Mark Oliphant College student Callum Coffee.

His teacher, 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, which was established in 2008 to engage young people in Aboriginal culture, Callum had to meet several schoolworktargets.

With the help of teachers, family and friends, he reached the KPIs and was permitted to enter.

Mr Cheeseman said: “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 the 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.”

But this appeared to be only the beginning of Callum’s personal growth. Mr Cheeseman said it was rare for Callum to speak in SA 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,” Mr Cheeseman said.

“Over a span of two days, Callum 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 the Power Cup, Callum has excelled at ice hockey. He started learning to skate and play ice hockey after joining the Ice Factor program last year.

Callum was selected to join and be a representative of Australia’s first Indigenous ice hockey team, the Kaurna Boomerangs.

He and other Indigenous players formed strong friendships that ended up taking them to Canada.

Callum is training to represent Indigenous Australians in a New Zealand competition later this year.

He is also a mentor for the students participating in MOC’s Ice Factor this year.

Light MP Tony Piccolo met Callum recently at a Reconciliation Week event organised by the Munno Para school.

“The changes in Callum demonstrate how important it is to have “school life” that meets the needs of every aspect of a young person’s education,” Mr Piccolo said.

“In this case, a sporting activity has ignited Callum’s passion and his whole education will benefit from it. We should never underestimate the power of passion.”

The Power Cup aims to help Aboriginal youth through education; promoting healthy lifestyle choices; and teamwork, leadership, resilience and life skills.