Young Coach Drew Fryer – a finalist in the Sport NSW Awards

18 May 2021

Young Coach Drew Fryer – a finalist in the Sport NSW Awards

Eastern Suburbs coach Drew Fryer was this week announced as a finalist in the Young Coach of the Year category at the prestigious 2021 Sport NSW Community Sport Awards to be announced at NSW Parliament House in June. Drew Fryer, 20, is in just his third year of coaching and has already made a positive impact on his group of athletes.

The year after he graduated from Cranbrook School, Drew Fryer, started coaching at his former school. He had good initial success at the annual Combined Associated Schools Championships (CAS) with an athlete Nicolas Rodgers winning the 400m and 800m. Fryer recommended to Rodgers he seek coaching outside of school, but Rodgers had enjoyed the coaching with Fryer and wanted him to coach him.

“He told me he’d rather just sort of continue what I was doing with him and asked if I’d coach him one-on-one,” recalled Fryer who at the time was losing purpose in his own successful running career.

“To be honest, at the time I actually wasn’t enjoying my own running, it was the first time in about probably 15 years I had started to get lulls of motivation and wasn’t really looking forward to training each week.

“So, I decided I’ll see where it (the coaching) could go and started to meet with Rodgers just once a week for the 2019/20 athletics season to try get the national qualifier at the time which was 2:04.0, which I knew was certainly going to be a task as his PB just from the school season was 2:13.”

From that initial start Fryer’s squad started to evolve naturally.

“Soon after Nicolas Rodgers another student from the school joined the squad, then a few more, then within a few months another half dozen from other schools (Sydney Grammar & Trinity) joined in.

Two years on from that initial start in coaching, Rodgers won bronze in the 800m at the Australian Junior Championships last month – an outstanding achievement from modest beginnings.

Fryer had another two from the squad run at the Australian Championships, one athlete George Perkins, took his 3000m personal best from 10:30 to 9:06 – a staggering improvement. Another athlete Matthew Radvin, from mid-11 minutes for 3000m to 9:43. They both now compete in sport at a level they never thought possible.

Another athlete to benefit from Fryer’s coaching has been triathlete Will Cooper who has won multiple NSW State All Schools Championships medals. Fryer has also been coaching Swans Academy AFL player Byron Middleton a student at Trinity Grammar.

“All of the boys including Charlie Normoyle, Callum Forato, Sam Davis, and Jack Davis have finished off the season with massive PBs over either 400m, 800m or 1500m,” said a proud Fryer.

“As well as my squad I still coach at Cranbrook High School (since 2019) as the head cross country coach, and middle-distance coach during the athletics season. This means I pretty much coach at Cranbrook all year round.

“One of the biggest decisions I always take a while to plan is deciding training times and days. As I always try to fit it around the majority of the boys other sporting and school commitments.”

Many of the Cranbrook members of the squad, would have looked up to Fryer while he was in his last years at the school where he was an outstanding athlete and captain of three sports - athletics, swimming, and cross country and was recognised with the Pierre De Coubertin Award.

The 2021 Sport NSW Community Sport Awards will be announced on June 17 at NSW Parliament House. Fryer is one of four finalists in the Young Coach of the Year category and will vie for the award against Bailey Connolly (from Paddle NSW), Jordan Jones (Cricket NSW) and Alana Toogood (Hockey NSW). Good luck Drew and thank you for the impact you are already having on your squad of young athletes.

David Tarbotton for Athletics NSW

Image: Drew Fryer and squad