There may come a time when Ryan Witherdin has to make a decision between rugby union and league but for now the young gun is enjoying the best of both worlds and absorbing everything he can from the opportunities that fall his way.
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This weekend the Calrossy Year 9 student will join the best young under-15s players in the state at the first of three NSW Rugby Gen Blue camps to be held over the next week.
Held on Sunday and Monday and featuring one match day and one training day, the camp will be led by NSW Waratahs and Academy coaching staff.
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"It will be a big eye-opener," Witherdin said.
"It will be another level of training and skills."
Proficient pretty much anywhere in the backline, Witherdin's selection for the camp came as a complete surprise. He had no idea about it until one of his teachers at school came up and congratulated him.
It is some consolation for missing out on touring New Zealand with the NSW Country under-15s. They were supposed to head over during the Easter holidays but the trip was subsequently cancelled because of the coronavirus pandemic.
At that stage it looked like it might not only be the trip that Witherdin might miss out on. He didn't know if he would get to play any footy of any kind this season.
Not something he was keen about, fortunately those fears were abated and he was able to suit up for the Calrossy 16s in the North West Regional Youth Rugby Competition and Dungowan Cowboys 15s in the North West Group 4 Junior Rugby League competition.
Also part of the Group 4 under-14s squad last season, Witherdin has been juggling the two codes pretty much since he started playing rugby for Calrossy in the Friday night competition in primary school. At that point he had already been playing league for about five years.
Regarded as one of the most exciting young league talents he has for the past two years been involved in the Newcastle Knights development program.
The first year was pretty much all training but this year also involved games.
It was a big undertaking for not only Witherdin but his family. His parents, or one of, would drive him down after school for training of a Wednesday and back again, often not getting back until 11.30pm.
They would then do the same when the side had games.
But it was worth it with Witherdin "learning a lot" from the experience.
One of the biggest things he took away was the importance of working together as a team.
As to where it all goes from here, Witherdin isn't looking too far ahead. He is just taking it all in and trying to learn as much as he can.
He won't be the only northern talent at the Gen Blue camp with Narrabri's Joey Fowler and Scone's Bailey Park also selected to be involved. Both are at school in Sydney.
