Head Start

Former SBAT Student Success Story

Former SBAT student blistering up the athletics track, balancing Athletics career and his trade.

Congratulations to Archer McHugh, former Patterson River Secondary College student who was an SBAT student with the Head Start Program, graduating Year 12 in 2023. Since leaving school, Archer has been balancing his work and TAFE studies, completing his Certificate III in Plumbing with his Athletics career as a National sprinting sensation.

Archer recently ran in the 2026 Australian Athletics Championships held in Sydney at Olympic Park from Thursday, 9 April to Sunday, 12 April. He competed in the 100m Men’s Heats and Semi-Final and 200m Men's Heats, Semi-Final and Final, broadcast live on the Seven Network. As a national-level sprinter, Archer was in races with record-making athletes, Lachlan Kennedy and Gout Gout and he produced some outstanding personal results.

In his first Open National 200m final, Archer came 5th with a PB and he broke his own Club Record (for the Sandringham Athletics Club) of 20.37s in the race that Gout Gout won with new Australian Record of 19.67s.

In the 100m Semi-Final, Archer came 5th to Lachlan Kennedy with a time of 10.61s, narrowly missing out on a spot in the 100m Final.

Archer, currently a 4th year apprentice with employer, Trade Solutions, balances his work and training, “working Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday, 8-10 hours a day as a Plumber. The work is physically demanding, but I am well conditioned to it, as I have been doing it for years now.” He has said that, “trying to juggle such a physically demanding job with training can be challenging. This means that my rest and recovery time is of huge importance. So, I have made efforts to prioritise that over the past year: eating better, sleeping earlier and generally making sure that I am listening to my body, both at work and when at training.”

Archer began his Athletics career in Year 12, when he ran the 100m at the school’s Athletics carnival. He had not run track since Year 8, due to Covid, but he had been playing footy. “After a couple of rounds of District and Regional Championships, it came to the State School Sport Victoria (SSV) Championships. I lined up on the 100m line as the under dog, ended up winning the race with a time of 11.20s or something around that mark.”

He made the decision to fully commit to athletics, when he ran sub 11 seconds for the first time. Since then, Archer began working with a committed coaching team: Coach, Cathy Woodruff; Strength and Conditioning Coach, Corey Innes and the team at PhysiPro Athletic, Seaford. Then, “my main focus was on making my first major championships, (2024 World Junior Championships in Lima, Peru). This was a great experience to debut in the green and gold for Australia.”

Archer is hotly contesting for selection on the Australian Commonwealth Games Track and Field team and with performances like this, we are sure it will not be too long until we see him achieve his dream. Until then, Archer continues to work in his trade 4 days per week, whilst training and pursuing his Athletics career. The BPA Head Start team are so proud of all that Archer has and continues to achieve and he is a role model to students across BPA schools. He demonstrates what is possible within a trade-based career and how the Head Start program can support young people with big dreams.