Cricket: Whanganui's Shaun O'Leary set for big season after trading in rugby boots

Shaun O'Leary (bowler) has a scholarship to Lincoln University in 2022. Photo / NZME

Schoolboy sports star Shaun O'Leary has traded his footy boots for the bat and gloves.

Following a standout rugby season for the Whanganui Collegiate 1st XV and the Hurricanes title-winning Whanganui U18s, O'Leary, who captains his school's 1st XI and 1st XV, has joined older brother Connor in the Riverview Wanganui lineup, slotting in at No 4 in the batting order.

O'Leary, who has won a scholarship to Lincoln University in Canterbury in 2022, was in outstanding form last summer as the sole local in the Central Districts Under 17 squad, while making history at Collegiate as the first player in a decade to score 1000 runs across a calendar year.

"He's got huge potential and could go a long way," Cricket Wanganui coach Warren Marr said.

Marr said that O'Leary spending time in Lincoln, both a strong cricket base and an industrious rugby school, left the talented sportsman at the crossroads many two-sport stars found themselves at, in the modern professional era.

Today's Shaun O'Leary could become tomorrow's Brett Cameron – the former Wanganui Junior Cricketer of the Year who played Furlong Cup and Central Districts age-grade level.

Rugby at Lincoln gave Cameron a pathway into the Canterbury team, a 2018 All Blacks test jersey, a Crusaders contract for three seasons and, in 2022, a lucrative deal with Japanese club the Kamaishi Seawaves.

However, having spent a lot of time with O'Leary when he was the Collegiate coach for their school tour of the West Indies a couple of seasons ago, Marr knew the young man's love for the summer game.

"If he chooses cricket, he'll get 100s moving forward for Wanganui."