Fressard’s path from school expulsion to Origin arena
Jasper Bruce |
If Jayme Fressard hadn’t been kicked out of school in year 10, she probably wouldn’t be lining up for NSW and taking a shot at State of Origin glory.
By her own admission, the Sydney Roosters winger was acting up and hanging out with a bad crowd when she was expelled from high school a little more than 10 years ago.
“I was probably people-pleasing a little bit and getting caught up in the wrong crowd,” she told AAP ahead of Thursday’s Origin II.
“I feel like I didn’t have a certain amount of people that believed in me.”
School had never been Fressard’s favourite place, so starting fresh at Gorokan High on NSW’s Central Coast would’ve felt daunting.
But it was at Gorokan that a teacher first put a rugby ball in Fressard’s hands, with the naturally athletic teenager preferring soccer up to that point.
Fressard had never known that footy was even an option available to her.
“One of the teachers asked if I wanted to play rugby sevens. I thought, ‘Oh my God, girls can play tackle?’ I took that opportunity,” she said.
Fressard excelled so quickly that at 17, she was selected to represent Australia at the 2015 Youth Commonwealth Games in Samoa.
Feeling more at home at Gorokan, Fressard finished year 12 – an impressive effort given how things had ended at her previous school.
When fellow Central Coast local and current NSW captain Isabelle Kelly invited her to train with local rugby league team the Berkeley Vale Panthers, Fressard’s footy journey took another turn.
Fressard fell in love with the game and went on to earn an NRLW contract with Brisbane for the 2020 season.
A premiership winner with the Roosters last season, Fressard excelled on Origin debut for NSW last week, scoring two tries in a record-breaking 32-12 rout of Queensland.
She’s now only 70 minutes away from becoming a State of Origin champion, with NSW hoping to reclaim the Origin shield for the first time since 2022.
Score three more tries this series and Fressard could equal Kelly’s record as the Blues’ most prolific tryscorer of the Origin era.
The heights she’s scaled in rugby league have left Fressard to look back at expulsion from school as one of the most significant moments of her life.
“In a way it was actually a blessing in disguise. It ended up being the best thing that happened to me,” she said.
“New change of environment, some new teachers that believed in me … In two years, I had a very different perspective as well on life.”
These days, when she’s not playing footy herself, Fressard works for not-for-profit organisation Creating Chances helping mentor teenagers through sport.
She even spends time back at Gorokan High trying to have the same positive influence on kids that her teachers had on her 10 years ago.
“I’m pretty honest and I’m pretty raw with my experiences growing up with the kids,” she said.
“I understand that school’s not for everyone but I think there’s two different pathways you can go down.
“It’s trying to show kids that just because that’s a pathway that you have, doesn’t mean that’s where you have to stay on.
“You can always change your course. I really try and encourage the youth and show them that if I can do it, anyone can do it.”
AAP
