Back Row (From Left to Right): Blaze Feury, Margo Howard, Jake Howard, Kelly Tam, Tom Howard
I think it is finally time that I let you guys in on who we are actually living with, because they are some pretty awesome people.
To start off, the house is owned by Jake and Margo Howard, however they do not live there anymore as they rent it out to their children. They now live at the Sunshine Coast, and it is their house that we stayed in last weekend. Jake Howard played for the Austrialian National Rugby Team (the Wallabies). Jake played prop for the Wallabies and even was able to play the British Lions when they came on tour. He also was the Wallabies forwards coah in 1991 when they won the World Cup. Beyond that, the was on the Australian National Rowing Team as well.
Margo Howard is a very experienced and successful rugby coach as well and at all different levels and all over the world. She comes from a great rugby family as well. Margo Howard's father, Cyril Towers, made 57 appearances for the Wallabies. He also captained the team three times in 1937.
Jake and Margo have 4 children, Pat, Katherine, Tom and Dave (Tom and Dave are twins).
Pat was also a very successful rugby player. He started his professional career when he was picked up by the Queensland Reds (that is the team we watched play last week) and later moved to the Brumbies (who just beat the British Lions 14-12 the other night). He played for the Wallabies from 1993-1997 at inside center and fly half. He also was a player-coach over in England for Leicester as well. We saw Pat back in the states about a year ago when he was visiting the NYC area and we met up with him on our very first day in Australia when he was getting his kids ready for a game at GPS. He is now second in command in the Austrialian Cricket Administration.
Katherine is also a rugby coach for one of the school teams over here that she teaches at. She was nice enough to bring us to the Sanctuary last week where we saw the Koalas and Kangaroos!
Tom Howard coached us for a full season at Delbarton in 2010 when I was a sophomore and Blaze was a senior. He was incredibly valuable to the program as Delbarton had one of the most successful seasons ever that year. He is a top notch athlete who has played Premier Grade for GPS at flyhalf and also participates in Australian Rules Football. His girlfriend, Kelly, also lives here and makes some of the best soup I have ever had.
Dave Howard made an appearance at a Delbarton Rugby practice as well in 2010. We also met up with him and his girlfriend, Katherine, in NYC for the NY Sevens once. Dave is also a Premier Grade Prop for GPS.
Dave's girlfriend Katherine, who also lives at the house, plays rugby for the University of Queensland. She has taught us quite a bit about Rugby League, Australian Rules Football, and Rugby during our time here.
Katherine's brother Chris also lives here. Chris is an extremely talented surfer and he took us our surfing when we were on the Sunshine Coast.
Lastly, currently right now we have another guest other than ourselves at the house, David Campese. David was capped for Australia 101 times and held the world record for most tries in test matches (64) until 2006. He and the Wallabies won the World Cup in 1991 and he was voted player of the tournament. He is known for inventing the "goose step" which has become a world-wide phenomenon and is now known as the "Campese Step." He has played professional rugby for a number of years all over the world and was inducted into the Australian Rugby Hall of Fame in 2007. He is definitely one of the best players who ever played. He also is a great cook, as he made us a wonderful chicken stroganoff dinner last night. We also played indoor soccer with him at a weekly indoor league right after dinner as well! We lost six to four, but put out a great effort! Chris, Tom, David, Blaze, and I all played (Tom and David both had goals and I added two, but more importantly I definitely had the coolest celebrations including the dead fish)! But anyways, it has been incredible to hangout with Campo.
As you can see we are very lucky to have this wonderful group of people welcome us into their home and their life for these 6 weeks. They are doing it out of the goodness of their heart and make us feel so welcome and comfortable during our time here. We cannot thank them enough and hope they come visit us in America sometime! But for now, we will continue to enjoy our time here and Australia and try to learn as much as possible during the rest of our stay!
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