Cooper Williams has just scored his first ton on the cricket pitch, and with his selection to a state team, it's not likely to be the last.
The 12-year-old "lives and breathes" cricket. He plays for Marist Brothers in the under 13s team, and plays the odd game with his dad, Troy, in the third grade.
Next week, he will head to Sydney to train with the NSW team ahead of the national PSSA tournament to be held in Ballarat from November 19.
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Cooper has been selected as a wicketkeeper/batsman, a badge of honour for a cricketer who practices "every minute he gets" on a field in Caniaba named after another famous wicketkeeper/batsman - Adam Gilchrist.
The student from Our Lady Help of Christians school in South Lismore has been hitting a ball before he could walk, and Cooper's dad says becoming a cricket professional is "all he wants to do".
"He definitely wants to play professional cricket," Troy says of Cooper's future dreams. "That's no hidden secret."
Troy says Cooper listens to podcasts by Steve Smith in his spare time to pick up coaching tips, and is prepared to do "whatever it takes" to improve his skills.
But it hasn't always been easy for Cooper, who has had four surgeries in his young life - the first when he was four - and faces more in the future.
Cooper has Perthes disease, which impacted the head of the leg bone in his hip joint.
Troy says Cooper never looks for pity over the condition, rather, he would be keen to let other kids who have Perthes disease know a diagnosis is not life-ending, and you can still chase your dreams.
He says Cooper is very humble about his achievements, and is pretty laid back, characteristics that make him popular on the field.
"Cooper has a calming influence on the field. The other boys want to be around him," his proud dad said. "They seem to gel with him."
Cooper's first 100 on the cricket pitch came two weeks ago in an Inter District under 13s game between Lismore and Ballina.
It was an achievement spurred on, Troy said, by disappointment in falling eight short of the century in a game at Dubbo the week before.
There, he was captaining Polding in a Catholic schools tournament, and was disappointed not to make the century.
Troy says that he worked hard to reach that feat two weeks later is a mark of his determination to become a cricket star in the future - one they name cricket pitches after.
