Rodney Stevens

A personal trainer who recently moved to the Clarence Valley is taking Lower Clarence Magpies players to the next level with twice weekly elite fitness and skills sessions helping 7 players achieve representative success.

Gilbert Guttenbeil said he was introduced to the Lower Clarence Magpies by Darrin Heron and Chris Douglas after semi-retiring to the Clarence Valley from Sydney’s Northern Beaches just over a year ago and the club have been extremely welcoming.

With a background in Rugby League over 4 plus decades playing and coaching rugby union and league in Sydney and as a personal trainer, Mr Guttenbeil is cousins with former New Zealand representative players Kurt and Dane Sorensen.

“I thought, yeah, I’d love to get involved with the community, so I started training people and I’m training these young kids with their fitness and skills,” he said.

“I have a 1% club, I’m training a couple of younger guys who are 15, and four young girls who are all 19, Mia Dendle, Raeyah Kapeen, Mirium Mirupasi, and Isabelle Zammit who all have been chosen in the Northern Rivers Titans Ladies Open team, plus Open Men’s players Callan Hollis and Cody Walker.

“I’ve trained them for almost the last four months, really high intensity, and they have all put in so much work.

“They train twice a week at the Yamba Sports Complex and they’ve really come on in leaps and bounds with their fitness and their skills.

“Luke Douglas comes in one day a week and helps out and he puts them through a lot of drills that are relevant in today’s sports.”

Mr Guttenbeil said the Lower Clarence has many extremely talented young sportspeople he has seen over the past year, and he would like to train any more athletes who are seeking to take their fitness to the next level.

“If you want to step up to the elite level, it’s a hard program, its not easy, I’d like to train athletes who want to excel in any sport,” he said.

To contact Gilbert email gilbertguttenbeil@gmail.com