Two young Greater Geelong lawn bowlers claimed a gold medal in the Boys Fours lawn bowls event at the Australian U18 Championships in Devonport last weekend.
Inverleigh’s Harry Coleman and Winchelsea’s Max Heaton-Harris were part of the Victorian team that won gold in the fours alongside Goulburn Valley pair Jacob Cartwright and Charlie Boswood.
Heaton-Harris also won silver in the Boys Pairs and Coleman won bronze in the Boys Triples.
Coleman, 15, started getting interested in bowls when he was three-years-old, watching his parents Mark and Suzy play. The family moved from Sydney to Inverleigh and Harry began playing there in Division 11 before crossing to City of Geelong’s Premier Pennant side and now plays in the Metro Pennant Premier Division for Deer Park.
Suzy also plays at Deer Park and Mark is one of Eastern Park’s star players and current coach.
“When we first left Inverleigh, we were looking at a few clubs and we knew a lot of people from City (of Geelong) and it was just a good family club,” Harry said.
“It had a roof so you could bowl there 24/7 and the coaching there was good so we went there.”
Harry said the move to Victoria’s best bowls competition and to Deer Park had “improved my game massively”.
“When you look at who’s on the coaching panel at Deer Park, you’ve got Mark Casey, who’s done everything in bowls. Then you’ve got former Geelong player Nathan Bush.
“So it was pretty hard to say no when we saw the Youth Academy was starting.”
Harry has had a stunning 2025 with numerous medals and awards. He was a member of Traralgon Lyrebirds Victorian Bowls League’s winning side.
“They (Traralgon) picked me because one of their players pulled out,” he said.
“They contacted Dad and said, ‘would Harry like to play?’ and Dad said, ‘yeah, he’d love to’. That was probably one of my most memorable achievements.”
