A 14-year-old from Lake Heights is fast making a name for himself as the next big thing in rugby league and rugby union.
Warrawong High School student Frederick Schwenke has already caught the eye of his country of birth Samoa, with selection in under 14 national rugby league and rugby union squads.
He also played for the NSW U14 schoolboys rugby league side which took on Queensland earlier this year.
The talented teen has also represented the Illawarra Steelers U14s team this year.
He plays his club rugby for the Avondale Wombats, though also spent a season with the University Mallee Bulls.
Frederick also plays in the second-row in league for the Dapto Canaries.
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These achievements are special in their own right but what makes Frederick's journey even more special is that the youngster has achieved all this in the space of just three years.
Frederick only started playing both sports seriously when his family arrived in Australia at the end of 2019.
In the case of rugby union, Frederick didn't even know many of the rules, but once he got a hang of the 15-man game he has flourished.
Letisia Schwenke said her son Frederick was just a skinny boy when he arrived in Australia and said he wanted to play union and league.
"Obviously with COVID he didn't start straight away but I said to him you haven't played rugby before are you sure you want to do it," Mrs Schwenke said.
"I was a bit worried but he assured me that is what he wanted.
"It didn't take him long to make representative teams but he still didn't really know the rules, especially in rugby.
"Once I said to him 'you don't know the rules, what are you going to do'? He just said 'I will just get the ball and run and see what everybody else is doing'.
"It has been a major progress for him.
"He's progressing really well and he's learning, he learns every year, he learns something new but he loves to train, he loves to learn more.
"We have been supporting him, backing him up with all types of training, especially his older brother, my oldest son Stephen who plays for Tech Waratahs."
Frederick added he was loving playing both sports and was hoping to continue playing both at the highest level for as long as possible.
While he enjoyed playing both, watching the recent rugby league international between Australia and Samoa had him dreaming of one-day representing his country in league.
"I'd love to one day play for Samoa in league. I really enjoyed watching that game."
Frederick's rugby league talents also led to him being accepted to attend Illawarra Sports High School next year on a rugby league scholarship.
In the meantime he is busy training five-days a week in both union and league.
" I'm just thankful for my family for being there and supporting me and helping me throughout my rugby and paying for my stuff, which is pretty expensive," Frederick said.
"I'm also thankful for the Lord for blessing me with all this. I didn't think I could make it this far but I did because of the Lord."
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Agron Latifi
Wollongong born and bred. I love reporting about the Illawarra region and have been doing it for more than 20 years. I've moved into sport recently after covering the education round for the last five plus years for the Illawarra Mercury. It's been a great pleasure.
Wollongong born and bred. I love reporting about the Illawarra region and have been doing it for more than 20 years. I've moved into sport recently after covering the education round for the last five plus years for the Illawarra Mercury. It's been a great pleasure.
