BILLY HARRIS: KIDS IN THE COMMUNITY
STRAP ON YOUR SEAT BELTS, PUT ON YOUR HELMETS... IT’S BRONSON GLEYE Readers are advised to warm up for this story about Bronson Gleye, because you’re going to get puffed just reading about him. Bronson gave an early clue for the action packed life he was about to lead by realising, at just nine months, that walking was a lot quicker than crawling, and then finding new and inventive ways of escaping the cot that was holding him back from all the things he wanted to do. Since then he’s got his teeth into everything you can think of, becoming a jack of all trades and master of, well, practically all of them. Bronson’s main sports are soccer and surf life saving. He plays for Western Springs premier 12th grade team and is a national gold medal winning surf life saver and current club Iron Boy – contested over the beach flags, sprints, board, diamond and surf swim events - for his age group at Red Beach Surf Club. He’s also a top swimmer, and at last year’s inner city swim champs, representing Ponsonby Primary School, he won backstroke, breaststroke 25m and 50m, freestyle 25m and 50m, butterfly, medley and relay. Those results are all the more remarkable when you consider that in a sport where the top athletes train anything up to 10 times a week Bronson trains just once at Trent Bray’s Swim School. Swimming lengths in a pool isn’t something he enjoys, certainly not enough to sacrifice his sleep for the 5am starts required by committed swimmers. Did we mention trampolining? Under the tutelage of Justin McKenzie, Bronson represented Auckland on the double mini and large tramp last year and with his good flexibility, core strength and spatial awareness – useful to avoid landing on your head – Bronson can do all the moves like twists, flips and half outs. On the ground he can do flick flacks and sommersaults. Bronson also plays softball, flipper ball, rugby, league and any other school sport available. He represented Ponsonby in every inner city team, and his contribution was recognised with the award of Sportsman of the Year. Away from school he surfs, wakeboards, snowboards, skateboards, scooters, and mountain bikes. And then when he feels his adrenaline levels getting a little low, he’ll do things like bungy jump off the Harbour Bridge and sky dive from 12,500 feet. As you do. And to show that he’s more than just a sports junky, Bronson is also a keen musician. He plays the drums, and last year was in the rock band, school band and marimba group, and at his new school St Kents is in the school band. Oh, and he’s been voted prefect at St Kents as well. But it hasn’t been all fun and games for Bronson. Far from it. He’s had more than his share of downtime, enduring injuries that would make an All Black wince. All have been to his monster size 10 feet, which are useful as flippers in swimming events, but which seem to get in the way out of the pool. In 2011 he broke his ankle while volleying the ball in a soccer match, an injury which was misdiagnosed for several weeks as a sprained ankle. He strapped it up for his school Inner City Rugby Tournament only to have a bone in his other foot broken when it was stood on by a very large opponent. So the day before Bronson and his family went on a surfing holiday to Australia he had both feet in casts and only just kept his sanity on the holiday by having access to a mobility scooter.
BRONSON focuses before his event at the Nationals at the time of writing, though it’s probably safe to assume he did okay). He’s got a reputation to uphold, being the current inner city champ winning all events in the pool last year and receiving the Barfoot Cup, for best overall swimmer. Whew. Busy times for the 11 year old, but they’re about to get busier if he’s to achieve his ambitions of becoming an ironman, a pro surfer, the fastest white man on the planet and a rock star. He thought about becoming a professional soccer player too, but realises that would be pushing it. (BILLY HARRIS) PN Do you know of a kid in the community we should write about? He or she might be doing something interesting in academia, the arts, sports or anything else. Drop me a line at billyharris2000@hotmail.com
But on returning home, the reality of injury set in and Bronson struggled with frustration and depression over what seemed like an interminable three month recovery period. He learned new personal development skills to find happy places so his mood swings did not affect the whole family. He also learned empathy for all the other children who for one reason or another – illness, shyness, lack of sporting ability – sit on the fringes, wishing they could be out there running around too. Last year he injured himself again, seriously breaking his big toe in two places while chasing his big brother Damien up concrete stairs. It’s been another six months of anguish until he was given the all clear last month to resume sports again. Not surprisingly, Bronson has picked up where he left off, taking part in the swim sports at school last month and winning four out of six events. He represented St Kents in the Eastern Zones meet last week, swimming in four of the five events (results unknown The World Belongs to the Dissatisfied
DEADLINE – 20TH OF THE MONTH April 2013 PONSONBY NEWS+
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