ENTERING the Pan Pacific Masters was supposed to be an excuse for a championship team to reunite, but the North West Stars touch football team is determined to win its grand final this year.
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Local Rugby League legend Scott Prince is in the touch footy team that competes in the Gold Coast in November. It’s the third time the team competes in the biennial event.
But they first started in the masters as a form of reunion, according to player Cameron Conlan.
The core group has its origins in Mount Isa, as does its sponsorship, as far back as 1995 when the Under 15s school team won the state title.
They are connected even further back having played together in the Under 12s Blackstars cricket side. Hence why they have remained friends two decades after their state title win.
“It was something that unexpected for the region,” Conlan recalls.
“Being in the bush, no one expected us to win a championship like that. We beat the Sunshine Coast in the final.”
They achieved this under the coaching of former Australian representative Tim McKee.
“If it wasn’t for him we wouldn’t have won the first time. We had a good team but we were lucky to have a coach like him that played for Australia,” Conlan said.
A handful of the team repeated their success the following year, although Prince had moved on to Townsville to begin his career for the Cowboys.
But 16 years later, McKee had the honour of playing in the Masters with his boys, who had long ago joined him in manhood.
McKee will not be playing with the North West Stars this year, as he is currently a teacher on a pacific island, and he is hard to get in touch with except through the occasional email, Conlan said.
Prince said there was still a Mount Isa presence in the North West Stars through the players but also by local sponsorship. He said the “fantastic” support had come from shirt sponsors The North West Star, and other sponsors including Jakeman Constructions.
The Masters is held from November 5 to 13.