Difficulty searching element in an Array

[sifuyipe]

Been messing around for hours and eventually decided to seek the assistance of the internet. I am trying to make a program where I/the user can add elements into an array (Name, age gender). Once elements have been added to the array, I want to then be able to search a String (name) to find the desired name I am after in the array. The context of the program is adding Climbers to a Climber Database (just an array) of who has climbed what mountain (haven't attempted adding the mountain stuff yet). In what I've written so far, I keep getting the return null, saying that the searched String cannot be found. I have a feeling that I am failing to pass the parameters of the added element in the array. For example, I add a 'climber' with the name John, 19, Male in the Climber Class. I then go to the ClubStats class to getClimber and search "John", the only one in the array and I receive a null.. FYI I am using BlueJ here so at a serious basic level.

/**
* Write a description of class Climber here.
*
* @author (your name)
* @version (a version number or a date)
*/
public class Climber
{
// Instance variables.
// The climber name.
private String name;
// The climber age.
private int age;
// The climber gender.
private String gender;

/\*\*
 \* Constructor for objects of class Climber
 \*/
public Climber(String newName, int newAge, String newGender)
{
    // Initialise instance variables.
    name = newName;
    age = newAge;
    gender = newGender;
}