Our 'Next Up' Athletes

The JK Foundation supports a wide array of emerging Midwest athletes across a number of sports. Over the past two years, over 100 athletes have been supported to reach for the next level on their sporting pathway. Check out just some of the athletes we're backing in as 'next up'!

Millie Gerreyn

Basketball and Netball

Millie is a local Geraldton champ, making multiple state teams and squads and taking out multiple awards in the Geraldton Amateur Basketball Association (GABA).

In 2025 she is training hard for the netball U19 state trials in October and the U20 state basketball trials about the same time. 

With all this going on she is doing year 12 ATAR hoping to get into Speech Pathology at Curtin. 

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Jy Thurstan

Softball

Jy Thurstan is an amazing local Midwest athlete who has been going great guns over the last year or two.

He was the 2024 Midwest Sports Federation Senior Sport Star of the year.

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Cruz McDonald

Surfing

Cruz is Geraldton’s very own State Champion.

After winning the first leg of the state titles in 2024 in Yallingup and finishing runner-up at Trigg, he secured the win in Geraldton, where he took out the State title on his home beach.

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Reid Foot

Footy

Reid has played WA State Schoolboys footy in 2024, and was part of the East Fremantle FC Futures in 2025. He performed very well, coming runner up in their best and fairest award.

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Max De San Miguel

Basketball

Max is a multiple state representative, making the WA (Country) team in U16s in 2024 and the U18s in 2025.

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Elijah Belottie & Trevor Farrell

Basketball

Trevor and Elijah, play basketball in the Geraldton Amateur Basketball Association. They have both been selected as a part of the Southern Cross Challenge which identifies young people across the state that excel in Basketball and have the potential to play in state representative teams. This program enables them to train and learn more about the sport alongside the state’s best players, coaches and support staff.

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Lucia Richardson

Circus

Lucia is a highly talented Yamaji acrobat and dancer that lives in Geraldton. Her hard work and commitment to her craft over many years has resulted Lucia being invited to be a part of the National “Flying Fruit Flies” Youth Circus in 2023.  She will be the first Yamaji young person to be given the opportunity to showcase her Circus skills on the national level that the National Youth Circus provides.

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David Smith

Table Tennis

David Smith is a local Table Tennis player, who has recently been selected to represent Western Australia at the Australian National Table Tennis Championships in Sydney. He first discovered and fell in love with the sport on a weekend break at the caravan park then played Table Tennis at school in the after school sports with Bluff Point Primary School at the age of 9, David then discovered Geraldton Table Tennis Club at the age of 11.

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Frauke Rawlings

Boxing

Frauke Rawlings is an amateur boxer for the PCYC in Geraldton. She first fell in love with the sport of boxing at the age of 12 as she found it fun and was it was great to keep her fit. However, it didn't take long for her coaches to see she could compete at a higher level. With her determination coupled with solid mentoring and support from local coaches, within a 3-year span, she successfully won a state title, made the Western Australian State Boxing Team and became a national Golden Glove Champion.

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Max Winton

Soccer

Nothing gets past local goal keeping sensation, Max Winton. You will often see Max playing at his local Club, Olympic FC in Geraldton. He is currently playing in both the Under 16 team and the 2nd Division senior team, as well as coaching both a junior club team & with the Football West Skills Acquisition Program.

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Eli Etherton & Fletcher Harrison

Softball

Eli and Fletcher are Softballers that have recently been selected for the Western Australian Schoolboys team that is competing in the School Sport Australia Under 18s National Championships May 13 – 20 where they will against the best Under 18 players in the country.

Both young men are play A and B grade Softball in Geraldton’s summer competition. In the winter they travel to Perth weekly to compete in the Western Australia State Softball senior competition.

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James Berry 

Archery (Pictured right)

Over the Easter weekend, James Berry was showing his older rivals glimpses of the future as he represented Western Australia at the Australian Bowhunters Titles in Mudgee, NSW. After what he described as some of the most difficult courses he had faced, with strong winds and competing in temperatures as low as -3C as he was able to show his skill to come home with a medal, finish 3rd place in both Bowhunter and 3D Target.

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Kyhan Townsend

Taekwondo

Local Taekowndo star Khyan Townsend has recently been selected to represent Australia at the ITF Taekwondo World Championships in Astana, Kazakhstan.

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Noah Bennet

Basketball

Noah currently plays in the Geraldton Amateur Basketball Association. 

In recognition of Noah’s excellent performance at the recent Southern Cross Challenge try outs, he has been selected to represent the Western Australia Country Under 15’s Basketball team in the High Performance Development Carnival that has athletes from all across Western Australia come together to compete.

Read Noah's full story here:

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