Hampton Banks His Future

Through our highly successful Indigenous Employment Program, AFL SportsReady has teamed up with the Commonwealth Bank of Australia (CBA) to provide employment and training opportunities in the Banking sector for young Indigenous Australians.

 

I first had the pleasure of meeting a young fellow by the name of Lonnie Hampton in November of 2010. I sat down with Lonnie and David Turner (Lonnie’s Careers Teacher at James Fallon High School) and outlined the Banking program to him. At that time, Lonnie was more interested in opportunities aligned to Sport. We discussed Lonnie’s future career aspirations and it was then that we found out that Lonnie’s number one aspiration was to hopefully get drafted into the AFL. We also discussed Lonnie’s other interests. We found out that he was keen to pursue a National Level Business Certificate qualification, so the Bank Traineeship was a perfect fit. Lonnie was also keen to make sure that he completed his HSC and that he had something to fall back on should his AFL dream not crystallize.

After going through the necessary Background checks and procedures required, Lonnie was successful in his application and took up his AFLSR Apprenticeship with the CBA in Albury on the 13th of December, 2012. Lonnie completed several weeks of full time work over the Christmas School holiday break as well as attending a 5 day CBA Induction in Melbourne during January, 2011. He continued to juggle his Apprenticeship and Football commitments over the holiday period before returning to school at the beginning of 2011 to commence his Year 11 studies at James Fallon High School in North Albury.|

Over the past 20 months, Lonnie has been attending James Fallon High School three days per week, the CBA Bank one day per week and Riverina TAFE one day per week. He has been completing a Certificate II in Business at TAFE which is aligned to his ‘on the job’ placement at the CBA. Along with this, Lonnie has had an elite level of commitment with his Football. Lonnie is a current member of the AFL Victoria TAC Cup program with the Murray Bushrangers. He is also a member of the Greater Western Sydney Giants Academy as well as the AFL – NSW/ACT talented player program. Along with this, Lonnie played for the Lavington football club in 2011 before crossing to the Albury Football Club in season 2012 (Both affiliated with the Ovens & Murray Football/Netball League).

This year, Lonnie has continued to juggle all of these commitments as well as tackling his HSC year. As part of his TAFE work, he has also been completing a Certificate III in Business as he undertakes the final months of his AFL SportsReady School Based Apprenticeship with the CBA in Albury.

The Murray Bushranger’s coach, Darren Ogier had the following to say about Lonnie, “Lonnie has been a great acquisition to our program. He has continued to work hard on and off the field to the level that he is at today.” The CBA Branch Manager, Jason McKenzie also had nothing but positive aqua lades for Lonnie; “Lonnie has a great attitude towards his work at the Albury Branch and has a terrific rapport with his work colleagues and CBA customers”.

Each time that I have completed a monitoring report, Lonnie’s appraisal has been nothing but positive.

– Michael Caruso, AFLSR Traineeship Consultant