Hi,

My name is Mitchell Rankin and I am 12 years old and currently attending Shirley Smith High School as a Year 7 student. I am raising money to represent the ACT team at the Australian School Sport Nationals in Tennis – which is named the Bruce Cup. It will be held this year in Darwin, NT from 17 August to 24 August. The Bruce cup is a prestigious national schools tennis championship with all eight states and territories competing between each other. It's open to girls and boys aged 12 and under. The team of 7 boys and 7 girls will be travelling to Darwin this year to represent ACT.

Since I have been a little boy, I always had passion for sports. I couldn’t go past a ball, I played everything – soccer, basketball, touch footy, cricket, you name it. When I was about 5-years-old, I was dreaming of becoming a professional soccer player however later on, around 8-9 years of age my passion changed and I started dreaming of playing tennis at Wimbledon and the Australian Open. For the past three years I have been part of the ACT National Development squad training 6-7 days a week - mornings and afternoons - trying to improve my fitness and tennis skills. I am aware of the hard work, determination and grit that is necessary to make my tennis dreams come true. I am committed and prepared to continue working hard to achieve my goals.

Since starting my tennis journey, I have been selected to represent ACT on the number of occasions, which I’ve enjoyed it immensely. In both 2022 and 2023 I played in 11’s Australian Team Nationals Championship at the Gold Coast, represented ACT at the NSW Championships and at the Bruce Cup. I love playing for my state and always try my best. Team events always have a great atmosphere as all the players are cheering for each other. I will be very excited if I can represent ACT again this year at Bruce Cup (hopefully as the team captain).

This time I am hoping to raise most of the money on my own with the help of this wonderful community and my other work I'm committing to do over the next three months. All your donations will help me to cover flights, accommodation, event fees and uniform costs.

Your support is greatly appreciated! All donations are tax deductible.