By LIAM TWOMEY
THE Western Jets and Victoria University have announced Ben Norton as the inaugural recipient of the Nathan Prince Scholarship.
Prince, who played football for the Western Jets and Bacchus Marsh, died after being struck in the chest during a match last year.
In honour of Nathan, Victoria University initiated the scholarship, which will be awarded each year to a player who shows promise both on and off the football field and demonstrates a keen interest in pursuing further education after high school.
Western Jets’ region manager Shane Sexton said it was a great initiative from the two parties.
“What happened to Nathan was very sad for everyone involved,” he said.
“Being one of our major sponsors, Victoria University was obviously aware of what was happening and held an internal meeting and decided they wanted to do something to honour Nathan.
“They came up with the idea to have this educational scholarship for their tertiary institution, which is fantastic,” he said.
As part of the scholarship, Norton will receive $1000 towards his studies at Victoria University where he is training to be a PE teacher.
The timing couldn’t be better for Norton, who has been forced to put his football aspirations on hold because of a serious knee injury.
“Ben was playing terrific footy last year, before needing a knee reconstruction. He is going to miss the next 12 months but credit to him, he got himself a good score and got himself into a course so we thought we would support him.”
The Nathan Prince Scholarship will be awarded annually by the Western Jets and Victoria University.
