Soccer: Local coach Georgia Smith's maturity and passion borne of early brush with mortality

This attitude, she believes, began in childhood, when she was diagnosed with leukemia at age three and doctors told the family she had three months to live.

"I definitely can't be told no," she joked. "I had to grow up really quickly."

The 17-year-old's early brush with mortality, her mother, Helena, said, helped instill a sense of maturity that is "beyond her age".

Georgia took up soccer at the age of six, following in the footsteps of her two older siblings, and by 13 had begun coaching junior sides.

This year, she was the coach of three Souths United junior teams (the under 6s, under 8s, and under 10s), played senior football, and is in the midst of her Year 11 studies at Tamworth High School.

Her mountainous list of responsibilities led Northern NSW Football to present her with the Coach of the Month award in August.

"She's a born leader," Helena said.

"The kids just love her, she's like a magnet. As soon as she gets [to training], the kids just run to her and tell her what they've done for the day."

More impressive than her natural aptitude for coaching is her gift for connecting with special needs children.

Helena relayed a story about a junior player in one of Georgia's teams who was on the autism spectrum, and sometimes struggled to maintain focus during games.

"Georgia found out off his parents that he liked velcro," she said.

"She went out and found the velcro pads used to catch tennis balls. When he had a meltdown on the field, she pulled the toy out for him to play with ... to get his mind back on the game.

"She had a real knack for working with children with special needs."

This gift, Georgia said, may have stemmed from her years spent in hospital as a child.

"I grew up very sick and in hospitals a lot, so a lot of my friends were people with special needs," she said.

"It makes it easier to understand them."

That same instinct for solving a challenge with the players she coaches, however, manifests somewhat differently on the field. This was evident in 2022 when Georgia occasionally played as a fill-in for the Souths United men's fourth and third grade teams.

"I feel like when I play with the men, I'm trying to prove a point that I can do it," she said.

"I grew up with a lot of older boys, so I'm always trying to prove my point and prove myself."

From the age of three, Georgia had to fight for her life and has retained that scrappy spirit as she prepares to enter adulthood. But, she said, although "cancer definitely sucks", she "wouldn't change it".

"It changed our family, it made us so much closer and opened our eyes on life."

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