The Taipans Academy celebrated its 2009/10 program with their Inaugural Awards Dinner held at the Rydges Plaza during the week.

In attendance were Skytrans Cairns Taipans Chairman - Dennis Donaghy, General Manager - Mark Beecroft and Head Coach - Aaron Fearne.

“It is important to recognize the effort and commitment made by these young men and the volunteer coaches,”  Fearne said

“The Academy has played a big part in the development of guys like Nate (Nathan Jawai) Aron Baynes, Kerry (Williams) and Dwayne (Vale),” Fearne added.

Skytrans Cairns Taipans championship winning forward Dusty Rychart was the guest speaker for the evening and delivered an inspirational speech to the audience as he shared his story of being a scrawny undersized kid from Minnesota USA, who through hard work and relentless dedication made it on the big stage of college basketball before proving critics wrong again and starting a professional basketball career.

Ten years on and still at the top of his game it is a great asset to the local community that Dusty’s path has landed him in the Far North.

Dusty presented the major award for the evening which is the programs Best Overall Athlete. Aaron Bin Tahal was a delighted winner, the pocket rocket from the Northern Beaches demonstrated similar characteristics to his presenter while in the program with an outstanding work ethic and dedication to improving his game.

Other award winners on the evening were Cairns High student Laurence Hobson who accepted the Most Improved Award and Cairns Taipans Strength & Conditioning Coach Adrian Teitzel accepted the Coaching Excellence Award for his outstanding contributions in his field.

“It’s been a great evening for the parents, players and coaches involved in the program. The program is about hard work, education and opportunity and our aim moving forward is to improve the opportunities for our young players so they can achieve their goals, hopefully one day wearing a Taipans Jersey,” Academy Head Coach Mick Downer said.