Pay day for Australind club legend
If the crew at Australind Soccer Club thought volunteer Clark Edmeades was a legend before, they really think so now.
29 January 2009
The club President has
managed to net the club $2500 in prize money after winning the Local Legends
competition, which ran during Andrew Wynne's Clubland segment on ABC Local
Radio's Regional Drive
program.
Clark was originally nominated as a Local Legend by former club President Andrew Reeve for his five years of involvement.
He has recently started his fourth year on the committee and his second as President. Clark was also Team Manager for his 14 year old son's team, a role he is likely to continue for a second year.
Clark says he considers the win as a victory for the entire Australind Soccer Club – the largest soccer club in the South West. In 2008, the club had 350 players in 26 teams ranging from six to 17 years of age, and numbers are increasing at about 10 per cent a year.
"I suppose that agreeing to be President of such a large club isn't everyone's cup of tea, but I don't regard the nomination and subsequent win as a victory for myself, but rather for the club," Clark said.
"I didn't do anything special to win, I just happened to be the President of an excellent sporting club at the time of the competition."
Clark says the club will use the money to buy new goal posts and nets as additional playing fields become available for the growing club.
An initiative of the Department of Sport and Recreation (DSR), the Local Legends competition recognises sport and recreation volunteers from across Western Australia who give up their time week in week out to keep their clubs running.
Hundreds of community members nominated a legend from their local club, explaining what makes them deserving of Local Legend status.
Announcing the winner of the competition live on radio, Sport and Recreation Minister Terry Waldron - who is a life member of Kojonup Football Club - said these Legends were particularly crucial in rural communities, where sport and recreation played a particularly important role in binding communities together.
"The longer I live the more importance I place on sport and sporting clubs across country WA," Mr Waldron said.
"When I see a lot of the issues we have with health, lack of discipline, respect ... and with sport and sporting clubs (being about) getting involved and doing a job, a role, taking responsibility, getting the self-esteem from a job well done, I think sporting clubs are the best training ground for our community leaders and for everyone in general, that you could ever have.
"There's a lot of interaction and fun and I just think it makes for that community spirit that, when things go wrong in a community or when there's a hard time, they're the people that rally together and help you through those hard times."
Other finalists in the competition were Russel Foale of Wests Hockey Club in Busselton, Joanna Morton of Narembeen Hockey Club and Craig Karen of the Southern River Football Club.
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