FOR year 11 student Aubrey Bolton, becoming part of Esperance’s Clontarf Football Academy has given him the motivation to make a positive change in his life – a change that up until he joined the academy he didn’t think was possible.

Born in Perth and having also lived in Kalgoorlie and Katanning, Aubrey said that he had previously never had the incentive to really commit to his schooling.

“I never really enjoyed school because the work was too hard and I didn’t get along with the teachers,” Aubrey said.

“In Perth I would just wander the streets and get into trouble – I just didn’t care what I was doing.

“But when I heard that Esperance High School was going to start Clontarf Football Academy up in 2008 I was really excited because I realised that this could be my chance to become a new person.

“I told myself ‘Aubrey be the best that you can be’ and moved back to Esperance to start again.”

Started in 2000 by former Dockers’ coach Gerard Neesham, the Clontarf Football Academy uses a passion for football to encourage Indigenous boys to stay in school and engage with the education system.

For Aubrey, this encouragement has fostered some dramatic changes in his self-confidence and helped him to turn his life around.

“Clontarf has allowed me to achieve things I previously couldn’t have done.

“Through Clontarf I have become a role model to other Aboriginal boys because I’m doing all the right things – working well and achieving 100 per cent school attendance.”

Now a Clontarf year 11 leader and part of the Goldfields Football Development Squad, Aubrey is also undertaking work experience at a local business, which he hopes will lead to part-time employment.

“Clontarf is like a big family to me and if it wasn’t for Ray Davis (Clontarf’s Esperance football operations manager) and Glenn Symonds (director of the Esperance program) there is no way that I would be in this position right now.”

“Clontarf is probably the best thing that has ever happened to me and the other Aboriginal boys.”