SPORTS AWARDS VOTING – VOLUNTEER

Question

Please vote for your local sporting hero - Volunteer

Answer 1

MICHELE SIMOS

Michele Simos has been involved in the Terrigal Wamberal Little Athletics Club (TWLAC) club for 5 years and is currently President. The club has improved substantially with Michele's guidance and organisation. Having once been a club that struggled to find weekly volunteers, we now have many systems in place and are embracing technology for streamlined events each week, at Zone/Regional carnivals and allocated Age Managers for 18 Age groups of athletes. These age managers have a club supplied uniform and are knowledgeable on all aspects of track and field thanks to Michele's encouragement of subsidising training events, courses and encouraging team work.The committee it's self has also grown in numbers from single digit numbers to an enthusiastic and committed group of 14- each with specific duties and tasks, to ensure weekly comp nights are organised and run to time.Michele has taken on tasks, including re scheduling the entire events format for every of our 18 age groups, in a 3 week rotating roster, to ensure each group has a variety of track and field events every week, and that the entire club runs these events to a timed schedule with little to no " bottle necks" or hold ups.Having a passion for track events, Michele also coaches relay teams and assists in the technique correcting of long jump, triple jump and various throwing events.Representing Terrigal Wamberal club at monthly Zone meetings, and negotiating with this committee for the running of combined events is also a role Michele has taken on, as is the Volunteer coordinatoor for the Terrigal Wamberal club- ensuring the 30+ roles that volunteers need to fill each week are filled and executed.Whilst Michele is a very "hands on" president, jumping in helping our physically, she also encourages and promotes cooperation across all aspects of parents, volunteers and athletes. Her thoughtful and approachable demeanor is also appreciated in situations where conflict can sometimes arise.Not only does Michele bring years of organisational skill to our club, but her tireless approach and encouraging nature, to athletes, parents and the community, sees her as an inspiration to many and a great example of a community volunteer.

Answer 2

STUART WEATHERALL

Stuart Wetherall (or known to most as Nugget) joined the East Gosford Football Club as a 4yr old in 1977 and after 21yrs playing, finally hung up his boots in 2008.It was in 2008 that he joined the committee filling the position of Senior Vice President, fulfilling this role until 2016. During this time with his responsibilities with the committee, he also coached U5, U6, U7 junior teams as well as U18, U21 and several Men’s All Age teams.In 2017 he stepped up into the role as president and has recently been re-elected for the same role for 2019.Since his playing retirement in 2008, you could always find him every Saturday and Sunday at Hylton Moore. Stuart was always first there setting up the nets and if he wasn’t, it was because he was filling his usual employment as a firefighter with Fire Rescue NSW.The rest of the day he would be found doing long hours on the BBQ, helping with cadet referee training, manning the clubs official table.....generally just being available to deal with the smooth running of our large club, especially when the club could be hosting between 24 and 48 games just on a Saturday and another 14 to 16 on Sunday!But it’s his work outside of club hours that goes to show how dedicated to the Rams he is.As president he spends numerous hours attending Club and Central Coast Football meetings. This also includes volunteering to sit on judiciary hearings as a panel member and also on the other side as player’s club representative.More work he does behind the scenes is his help in the development of the clubs APP, manager of the clubs heavily used Facebook pages, organising the clubs Senior presentations and liaising with the Central Coast Mariners to help promote their brand. It doesn’t stop there, Stuart in the off season is always busy rounding Sponsorship for the club for the following year.He also does the registration and grading for all our senior players, organises all back up training sessions for all teams, team photos and bonding nights.I know a lot of people do similar work for the respective clubs but it’s the little things that he does where he goes beyond what most would do to help make players fell they are special and part of a great club. Stuart, with the help of a former Rams player, now a teacher at Brewarrina, created a boot bank for the kids out west who couldn't afford football boots. He set about collecting players old boots and sending them out to the schools where the children could borrow a pair of boots for whatever sport they were going to play.The club has also seen a rise in foreign players where English isn't even a second language but that’s no problem for Stuart who goes out of his way to pick the player up for his first game armed only with google translate and gets them sorted and introduced to their new team mates. Sometimes new players from overseas don't have transport as well as no local knowledge of grounds. He doesn't bat an eyelid, it’s straight over picks them up and gets them to the game and helps organise a lift back for them!The Mariners hold club nights at their home games where kids get the opportunity to play a game at half time on the stadium field. Ever since its inception Stuart will always make sure he is there for all the junior kids and their parents (2 hours before kick-off) so they know what is happening and that their children are in safe hands. After the kids have finished their games, he will remain with the kids till all are collected by their parents. He doesn't need to but he always says ‘they're our little lambs and we make sure they are all good’Stuart never forgets the past and present members of the club, and is always congratulating people for having a child/marriage or sending condolences for losing a loved one.Stuart has never seen himself as president of the club, he has always involved his whole been part of the committee and always just refers to himself as just another volunteer doing their bit for the club and its players, just like the rest of those on the committee. He want to provide a club where people want to come to play because they want to be part of a good thing.Stuart doesn’t look at his position as president as a privilege, he is a Family man, Club man, Mate and overall legend

Answer 3

ANDREW WRIGHT

Andrew is a dedicated volunteer and member of Kariong United FC. He currently holds the position of Grants Officer on the Kariong United FC Committee and has held this role and others over the past 10 years. Andrew is known for going the extra mile for the Club, he volunteers every Saturday morning during the season to cook the barbeque and is always the first one there to set up the fields and is often the last to leave, even though his children no longer play for the club. As the grants officer Andrew works hard to ensure our home ground is the best it can be, having recently secured funding to build an awning on the club house/ community centre which will not only support our Football Club but all sporting codes and members of the Kariong community who use Kariong Oval.

Answer 4

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.

Answer 5

COL SEGGIE

My Dad Col has been on the committee for Gosford City FC for over 35 years & been in every position except Secretary He is currently President of the club.He has been our Mens Premier League 1st grade teams manager for 32 of the 35 years He commented last week when we appointed the new coach that he would be his 12 th coach he has been manager He has also previously been a director for Central Coast football also severed on the Judiciary for over 10 years In the last 3 years he has organised the Coast Shelter Cup to raise awareness & funds for Coast Shelter.He also started Gosford City Football Academy for u/8-u/12 which is free to over 40 players.

Answer 6

JOSHUA DAVIES

Josh is a dedicated and hard working person striving to make our association the best it can be. He always goes above and beyond to assist and support fellow referees.Josh is the president of the association holding meetings, organising sponsorships and ensuring the welfare of all members, appoints all senior fixtures throughout the year, assists in running training, mentors junior referees on Saturdays and senior referees on Sundays, advocates for referees at judiciary, goes away on camps to help, mentor and support referees from across the state and is currently coaching the HUB (representative) referees from the coast.All this while working to support his family.

Answer 7

BOB MIROVIC

Not only is he famous in his own right for his boxing career, he is famous in the eyes of every person he has trained and given his time to to help them become not only fitter & healthier but a better version of themselves. He is the perfect balance of strong yet kind, confident yet humble.A truly genuine guy that deserves this award

Answer 8

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.

Answer 9

BARBARA MCCARTHY

Barbara McCarthy is a very special lady in the Central Coast Netball community. In this her 80th year Barb was still coaching a team, umpiring and had a role volunteering on the Gosford Netball Association Committee.In the last couple of years age was not a barrier for Barb she has had many seasons where she has coached 2 or 3 teams in a season.Barb has been a valued volunteer of Coastal Waters Netball Club since it started in 1979 & has also dedicated many years at an Association level with Gosford Netball.It would be wonderful if Barb received recognition for 50 plus years dedicated to netball on the Central Coast. She definitely has put in the hard work!

Answer 10

JEANETTE STUBBS

I would like to nominate Jeanette Stubbs, Jeanette has rheumatoid arthritis but this has not stopped this amazing woman in taking on Canteen Manager for our club, this is a very demanding position having to be available for all day Saturday and Sunday during our football season. She also needs to organise the stock to ensure that the canteen was successful.Jeanette was captain and chief of the canteen arriving at 7am most mornings and leaving at the last game of the day.On top of this Jeanette also looked after fundraising and took a position on the presentation committee.The canteen this year was one of the most successful for a long time with many compliments from other clubs..Our presentation night was amazing thanks to Jeanettes hard work.Our fundraising efforts were also amazing and thanks to everything that Jeanette did to support all the above we had a much better year financially which sets us up for an amazing 2019, and being able to offer our members a great club.

Answer 11

JULIE BERLE

Julie Berle has been and is an inspiration and the backbone of our Junior and Seniors volunteers for our club. Julie has been the Juniors treasurer for nearly 20 years. Julie not only manages the Juniors accounts , but the Junior and Seniors clubs canteens on both Saturday and Sunday. Julie also makes herself available for any committee members seeking support or advice.

Answer 12

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.

Answer 13

CAROLYN MCGUINNESS

Carolyn has been the Secretary of Terrigal Rugby Club for the past seven years. During this time Carolyn has not only undertaken the secretarial duties of the Club, she has been at the grounds almost every Saturday morning organising the ground set-up, the canteen & BBQ, organising the ball boys & ensuring everything runs smoothly on the day. Her preparation for this actually starts Friday afternoon with the meat collection for the BBQ, & early Saturday morning with bread & ice collection. Carolyn also runs the apparel shop and orders the jerseys for our Senior players. Most recently Carolyn is planning to run a disability rugby course to try & get kids that are either intellectually or physically disabled to enjoy some fun and get more involved with our Club - being a high school sports teacher Carolyn's passion is helping the kids.