I've Got a Mate

In 1997 Andy joined St Michael’s with his mate. They were in the under 8’s, and took to ‘soccer’ with great enthusiasm. Their first Gala Day was spent at St Michael’s School and on that momentous day Princess Di came to grief in a French tunnel.

In ’98 Andy and his mate were joined by Stuart (closely related to your correspondent) who was  another of Andy’s mates from school.  There were two Under 9 teams at the time. The Jaguars, and the other team who were coached by Steve Williams (Ivan Stepic’s brother-in-law) and this was the beginning of my experience as a soccer mum! Initially I didn’t attend many games as Michael (in today’s U13’s) was only a few months old.

Meanwhile Stuart was hanging on every word of his coach, camping himself deep as left back, and then running up but teetering on the half-way line not cross it because that’s what he thought his coach had told him.

U10’s was coached by Bill Morris. He was like a guru to Stuart. He said ‘stay wide’, Stuart stayed wide – no questions asked. Andy and Stuart flourished under Bill. Ashley Morris, Bill’s son, would assist at training, and even became a referee, was an inspiration to our larrikin soccer-crazy boys. School was boring, learning was tough, homework was ‘crap’, but training and Saturday mornings were the best times of the week. St Michael’s, with its great culture of ‘soccer for the fun of it’, and ‘all in to build a great club’ was the best environment our families had experienced in sport.  The hard-working volunteers like Ivan, John Estreich, Chris McLeay…the coaches who gave up family time whether they had experience as coaches or not, it was a great example.

Another son, David, started playing. Nobody was available to coach, so instead of the team breaking up, another son, Ben, stepped up. The colourful ‘soccer experience’ became even richer. Both these boys went on to do the ref’s course and spent many Saturdays at Bella Vista guiding the little ones around, and fending off sometimes overly irate parents who had lost the plot.

Back to the Piranhas, Andy and Stuart’s team. Whilst under the shadow of the more successful Jaguars, the Piranhas began to emerge as a competitive team, winning the President’s Cup. What excitement! The emerging ‘Marmee Army’ jumped and blew whistles through the last two full games before this knockout cup was won.

Too soon, it seemed at the time, Bill Morris left as his youngest son went on to another code. By this time the remarkable Andrew Horne had been coaching the ‘Barracudas’ for a year or two. Stu and Andy joined Andrew and a new bunch of mates started to play some very successful soccer.  Premierships, President Cups…the titles fell. Playing here was so much fun we had other ‘mates’ lining up to join. In fact, so many were there that we had too many and this inspired recruitment drive meant we had 2 very competitive teams of 17 and 18 year olds.  Thus the Titans were born.

Over the next few years it became apparent that the way the mainstream ‘football’ associations were coaching their players and running their comps was a lot more aligned with the rest of the world, and we were in a shrinking competition that wouldn’t adapt as we suggested. We had so many teams from the Knights competing against each other because we kept growing and our neighbours didn’t. We lost so many talented kids, and sometimes teams, that wanted to go another step higher that we had to do something.

Investigations were made, feelers put out, questions asked, debates held, public meetings called and eventually we were almost unanimously accepted into GDSFA. While we were too large for the Churches comp we were small fry in Granville.

Our first two years have been work intensive. A new constitution, grading of every player, educating coaches (including Stu and Andy who coached last year!), managers and even our spectators on new processes that mean the difference between a win and a forfeit, or a fine to the club. It has been busy.

Let’s get back to the mates again.  Our second year in, under new coach David Littlejohns, the Snr 8’s (the old Titans) were undefeated until last week, but have managed to get into the Grand Final for the second year in a row.  Overall, due to the hard work and humble, teachable people on our Committee we have 9 teams in the finals.

Nine teams! In a club which doesn’t actively recruit  players  from other clubs, has minimal facilities, finds their own sponsors, is coached by mums, dads, brothers and sons, and has a culture of seeing the game as a vehicle to grow people, not just a vehicle to win.

Next year we will have our first ever 15 year Continuous Service trophy awarded…to add another chapter to our story it will go to Andy…and then the following year to Stuart…and then……. 

Manager Corner

Thanks for gettin the information in we needed for the Continuous Service Awards...................now..................can you please make sure you get the Coach to take 10 minutes to complete and return the Grading Sheet the Club Coach has sent them?