MARGARET River's golden boy returned to his roots last week after a successful year which saw him win two gold medals with Australia's national hockey team.
Aran Zalewski , who was a member of the Kookaburras gold medal winning teams at this year's World Cup and Commonwealth Games, was back at Margaret River Primary School to talk to students and staff about his achievements in hockey and run a training clinic. Zalewski recalled his first tournament win which was as a year 7 player in the school team which went on to win the winter carnival against Busselton and Dunsborough schools that year.
He said he was pleased to see so much interest in local hockey and sport in general among the students.
Staff had lots of questions for him about his training load, diet, coaches he has worked under, other sports he has played and was interested in and about countries he has visited. While after his talk Mr Zalewski presented school principal Sinan Kerimofski with a hockey shirt signed by the Australian Kookaburras team.
He then headed outside to run a training clinic with the school's.
He said he would love to come back to MRPS in the future.
"I am looking forward to visiting the school again during breaks in my training schedule," he said.