MacDonald’s scholarship helps combine study and squash

Brendan MacDonald is a young man going places.

On the court, the 2022 Australian representative at the World Junior Championships is going from strength to strength. After graduating from St Patrick’s College, Mackay in 2021, MacDonald made the big move to Brisbane and the Queensland University of Technology (QUT).

It also saw him move to Daisy Hill Squash Club, where he hopes to launch a bid to eventually play at the Commonwealth Games.

“That’s one of my biggest ambitions in squash,” said MacDonald. “I don’t have a ranking in mind, but I’m just trying to pursue it every day, trying to get better and better and hopefully one day I can play full time.”

Right now though, MacDonald is combining full-time training with full-time study and a few shifts at Rebel Sport thrown in.

Not one to take the cruisy uni life, MacDonald started a double degree in law and psychology but has settled on the latter as the area he would like to pursue long term.

“The course content I found in the first year to be a lot more interesting so I started looking at different career options, and at the end of last year I realised this is probably what I’d rather do for the rest of my life so I made the switch to concentrate on psychology,” he said. “I’m probably looking more to the clinical side of it rather than sports psychology, or maybe neuropsychology; that's probably where my head’s at at the moment.”

As one of Squash Australia’s nationally categorised athletes, MacDonald was eligible to apply for a lucrative $10,000 QUT-AIS Scholarship. He was last month announced as one of only 10 successful applicants, and was presented with his scholarship by Executive General Manager of AIS Performance, Matti Clements.

The scholarship provides MacDonald with membership to QUT’s College of Excellence as well as it’s Elite Athlete Program which is directed at providing academic support provisions and professional development opportunities. He also has access to AIS Career Practitioner Services and opportunities to engage in national wellbeing programs and campaigns.

The scholarship will go a long way to allowing MacDonald to continue his studies as he already prepares for life after squash.

Speaking ahead of National Careers Week which starts on Monday, MacDonald said QUT had been accommodating in allowing him to chase his sporting dreams while training to a higher standard than he was able to in north Queensland.

“With the scholarship, they’re really good if I have conflicting tournament dates,” he said. “They’re really good with helping us out with assignment deadlines.

MacDonald’s next big event will be June’s Australian National Championships in Sydney, while he hopes to finish the year with tournaments in Malaysia or New Zealand before his third year of university study gets underway.

Squash Australia’s Athlete Wellbeing and Engagement Manger, Lauren Soderberg, praised the support the AIS are continuing to provide elite athletes to ensure they have the ability to train and compete while setting themselves up for their future.

“Squash has been really fortunate to have had Joseph White, Rema Muniandy and Nick and Tom Calvert receive an AIS Education Scholarship in the past three years, and it’s fantastic that Brendan is able to benefit from this joint QUT-AIS initiative.” 

For more information on National Careers Week, go to https://careersweek.com.au/