EUGENE SIMPSON

Eugene Simpson has been involved with Lisarow Ourimbah Cricket Club since the early 1980's where he was the president of the club for many years as well as playing and coaching junior teams.The Lisarow-Ourimbah Junior Cricket Club was formed as a sub-committee of the Senior Cricket Club in 1994. This was organised both by Eugene Simpson who was the Junior Club’s inaugural President and Greg McGill who was its inaugural treasurer.Eugene Simpson is still the president of the junior club, as well as being president he has coached teams when a coach cannot be found, he even coached teams his sons did not play in, so missed out on seeing them play and then he plays cricket himself in the afternoons.this year he does not coaching a team but goes to training every week to give the U/11 players specialized batting coaching.Even after a heart attack last March 2018 (while playing cricket) he has continued to be president of Lisarow Ourimbah Junior Cricket Club and involved with coaching in some way and back to playing.Every year he organises a Christmas party for the cricket club, juniors and seniors combined.Every year he also organises and takes team photos to be given out to the children on presentation day at no cost to the parents.Every year he repairs site screens and does any odd jobs required by the cricket club before the season starts and during the season.He arrives at Sohier Park Ourimbah at 6.30am every Saturday morning during the cricket season to help setup the oval before junior players start arriving and helps to pack away after senior cricket finishes on Saturday afternoon.During the winter months he is busy getting ready to start the cricket off into the next season.Eugene Simpson deserves to be recognized by the community for all the hard work he has done over the many many years he has been involved with Lisarow Ourimbah Junior Cricket Club and Lisarow Ourimbah Cricket Club.I am sure there are many things i have forgotten to mention in this spiel.

MONTANNA GODBEE

Montanna is at such a young age, but still supports her sports team, clubs and volunteers for her community.Montanna volunteers for Coastal waters netball, gosford netball, ocean beach surf life saving, heart foundation and kariong public school.Volunteers as a referee for coastal waters netball, weekly.Volunteers at the canteen fortnightly for gosford netball association.Volunteers for twilight netball as a referee, and stand in player for any teams that need a player.Montanna volunteers at kariong mountains high, with fundraising, plant sale etc.montanna volunteers as a surf life saver for ocean beach surf club.Although only having done 2 seasons montanna volunteers weekly for the club.Montanna is only rostered on a patrol about 4 hrs every 5 weeks, however you will see her at the beach most weekends helping out and filling in for people that are away.Volunteers on Saturdays with beach patrolMontanna helps out with under 6 and 7 nippers on a sunday morningsMontanna helps out with life saving events in water safety.Montanna assists with seagulls nippers. This is a program designed for people with disabilities to be able to attend nippers, on sundays as well.Montanna achievements in the last 12 monthsCoastal waters netball,” Sandra wickam award”. This award is for Jr of the year, showing great achievement, encouragement and support of club. It was a great honour.Umpiring awardOcean beach surf life saving club achievementsObtained SRC (serf rescue certificate)Obtained Bronze mediation award3rd in points score for under 145th in club for most patrol hoursMontanna has come such a long way and worked so hard for the past 2 years, despite suffering from separation anxiety, and a few medical issues. The anxiety is from the death of her dad when she was young. She volunteers for the heart foundation in honour of her dad.Montanna was very shy, didnt like to socialise much and kept to herself.Thanks to the staff at ocean beach surf club this is now a thing of the past.Montanna is very deserving of a nomination for this volunteer award.Montanna has and is overcoming many obstacles including being diagnosed with the same disease that her father died recently, and despite this she still manages to give of her time and energy to others less fortunate, or need a hand.

LARRY THOMSON

Larry Thomson has volunteered for the sport of rugby union since 1970 when he first played as a university student in Armidale. Ever since then, no matter which club or zone, he has gone above and beyond the call of duty.In his first years with the sport he was not just content with being a player for a club in a small competition, so he co-founded the Austin United Rugby Club in 1973. This achievement paved the way for him to be involved as a player, coach, referee & most notably, an administrator for his chosen sport.After completing his university degree, he was posted to Newcastle in 1975 as a teacher and joined the Waratahs Rugby Club where he played for a year. In 1976 he relocated to the Central Coast where he joined the Gosford Rugby Club with whom he has been involved ever since. He has played 302 games for Gosford, 148 of those in 1st Grade, winning 3 top grade premierships during that time. He coached 14 teams during those years including 3rd Grade, 4th Grade, Women's, U/19’s & U/15’s, and he managed numerous sides within the Club during his years. In 1977 he became Secretary of Gosford Rugby Club and was a member of the Club’s Committee every year until 2017, including President for 9 years (1989-1997).His commitment to Gosford was far from enough though as he also been a board member of the Central Coast Rugby Union since 1998 and has been the President of the zone since 2008. Despite employing paid officials to work for the CCRU Board, Larry performs more roles than any other official - he is the publicity officer which means he writes a 500 word article twice a week, every week of the competition for use by all local media. He is interviewed by local radio and television stations every week to give his thoughts on the local games as well as his view of the national games & he has done this continuously for at least 15 years. He organises the Season Launch, the Finals Series & Presentation Night every year and has done so since 1998. He is also the person who looks after all the finer details of the zone’s representative program each year and has been involved with the men’s representative side in roles such as Manager and Gear Coordinator and the delegate to NSW Country since 1993.Larry has two daughters and wanting to find them a place in the rugby community, he was instrumental in launching a women’s competition on the Central Coast in 1999. This competition ran until 2002, with five teams and led Larry to be either the Coach or Manager of the local representative women’s side from 1999-2006. This involvement gave Larry a path to become the Chairperson of NSW Country Women’s Rugby. From 2000 - 2017, Larry and his wife Pam, were the Managers of the NSW Country women’s side and have looked after girls from all over the state to be a part of this extremely successful rugby team. In 2010 Larry was invited to be on the NSW Country Board and has held this position for the past eight years. His skills have also provided him the chance to Manage the NSW Women’s rugby side on a trip to New Zealand in 2001 and he also coached an Antipodean women’s side who toured England in 2002. He is also on the NSW Women’s Rugby Union Board, a direct affiliate of NSW Rugby Union.During this time, Larry has been a high school teacher and took his love of rugby to all the schools he taught at. Larry taught at Wyong High School from 1976-1985 and then at Umina High School from 1986 until 2011 and again, being involved with just his school sides was not enough and he took on the role of Manager & Convener of the Central Coast CHS Schoolboys and Schoolgirls from the early 1990’s until 2014. He was also a NSWCHS selector for 12 years. One of his proudest achievements was winning the NSW Buchan Shield with Umina High School in 1999.Larry’s list of roles alone highlights how he has gone above & beyond for his chosen sport of rugby union and I am far from the only person who has recognised his passion & commitment to the sport. Larry has been acknowledged as a Life Member of Gosford Rugby Club, Central Coast Rugby Union, Brisbane Water School Sport Zone, Sydney North Area School Sports and NSWCHS School Sport. He has won countless awards for his service to the sport from Clubperson of the Year for Gosford Rugby Club to the Contribution to Central Coast Rugby award. He has trophies named in his honour – the Thomson Shield was the Premiership trophy for the CCRU Women’s Comp, the Thomson-Brown Shield is played for every time Gosford play Ourimbah Rugby Club at Gosford’s home ground and the NSWCHS Schoolgirls play for the Thomson Shield each year against ACT Schoolgirls. He was also awarded the ‘Brisbane Water Secondary College Peter Sutherland Award’ for services to the school and the ‘Services to School Sport’ award at Brisbane Water Secondary College was also recently re-named the Larry Thomson Services to School Sport Award. He has been nominated and received local Council Australia Day awards, as well received acknowledgements from the Central Coast Sports Federation. In 2016, he received an OAM for his services to rugby union.In 2011, Larry received a great reward winning a trip to the Rugby World Cup as a recipient of the ‘Volunteer of the Year’, awarded through the ARU & the NRMA.And the key to Larry’s commitment is that it is far from over as he is currently still performing many of these roles for Central Coast Rugby Union & NSW Country Rugby Union.