Eagles' Ruckman Baptised
20 Mar 2015
EAGLES’ RUCKMAN “STOKED” TO BE BAPTISED
Pina Tarantolo, Rev Fr Joseph Tran, Scott Lycett, Joe Tarantolo. The West Coast Eagles football player was baptised a Catholic at Our Lady of the Mission Whitford Parish last weekend. PHOTO: Miller Lokanata.
As the West Coast Eagles unveil the club’s 2015 season catch-cry “The West is Ours”, attention for one player this past week was on higher matters than just the footy season.
Eagles’ ruckman Scott Lycett was reported on Channel 7 News as joining “a bigger team” when he was baptised into the Christian community at Our Lady of the Mission Catholic Church in Whitford last weekend.
In front of many of his West Coast team mates, Lycett, 22, explained why he had chosen to be baptised at this point in his life.
“I wasn’t raised a Catholic. I wasn’t baptised as a child and I asked Mum and Dad if I had been and they said no, and I thought ‘this is what I want’.”
Lycett, originally from South Australia, chose Joe and Pina Tarantolo, his Catholic host parents in Perth, to be his godparents.
The couple, who could not have their own children, spoke movingly of the ceremony. “We love Scotty,” they said. “For us, he is our son.”
The Sacrament of Baptism was conducted by Whitford parish priest, Father Joseph Tran.
In attendance at the ceremony were family members, a selected number of close friends, plus senior players and staff from the West Coast Eagles Football club.
The ceremony opened with the hymn Amazing Grace, led by club chaplain and local song writer Paul Morrison and included the poignant text from 1 John which speaks of “the love that the Father has lavished on us, by letting us be called God’s children, and that is what we are”.
Towards the end of the ceremony, Morrison sang a reprise of thesong Believe which was recorded for the West Coast Eagles’ 2012 season launch, and which was later picked up for the team’s TV commercial.
At the point of baptism itself, members of Lycett’s immediate family and close friends laid hands on him and prayed as Fr Tran poured blessed water onto the Eagles’ tallest senior player, baptising him “in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit”.
Lycett’s club mentor, recently-retired ruckman Dean Cox, who was present throughout the ceremony, said, “I feel Scott is really settled, which is a pleasing thing, as that’s what it will take for him to play really good footy”.
Just recently, Lycett signed a four-year deal to stay with the West Coast Eagles.
He says that if it had not been for his host parents, now also his godparents, it is unlikely he would have remained in Western Australia and would probably have signed with Port Adelaide.
Lycett’s final words at the end of the ceremony seemed to sum up the importance for him of the entire celebration.
“Thanks for coming along today to share in this special ceremony with me,” he said.
“It means a lot to me,” and “I’m stoked you could make it.”