Paul Simpson from the Springwood JAFC Auskick Centre was named the Queensland NAB AFL Auskick Volunteer of the Year Award at a gala awards night at the Gabba on Friday.
Recognized for his outstanding commitment to the Springwood JAFC NAB AFL Auskick Centre, Paul received his award from special guest and National NAB Auskick Ambassador Shane Crawford.
Paul has been the Auskick Coordinator at the Springwood JAFC NAB AFL Auskick Centre for several years and has done a tremendous job at promoting the club throughout the local area.
Never one to shy away from hard work, Paul has taken care of all administration for the club as well as providing a great point of contact for parents to help ensure that things run smoothly.
Paul has always worked hard to promote “club culture” and has organised key club events such as family fun days and discos. It has been these kinds of initiatives that have helped guarantee participants feel a part of the club and progress into the next stage of football once the program finishes.
Paul and his guest will be rewarded by NAB with two days of hospitality in Melbourne during the qualifying finals including an exclusive tour and workshop session at AFL House and VIP attendance at an official AFL function.
Other regional winners acknowledged on the night included:
Gold Coast – Silvia and Toby Wilkinson
Husband and wife duo Silvia and Toby Wilkinson are a formidable team when it comes to Auskick.
Silvia’s takes care of administration and communication and is the driving force for all off-field duties.
Toby’s forte is on-field with Gold Coast staff reporting that his supervision and instruction of the Broadbeach program was amongst the best they had seen in many years.
The couple was instrumental in organising a Super 6s carnival with over 400 kids and they play a big part in transitioning participants into the Under 6 and Under 8 club competitions.
Brisbane West – Shane Garcia
Shane Garcia Shane has coordinated the Auskick program at the Ipswich Cats for a number of years and continues to increase his role in the club and the local community.
The Cats Auskick continues to be one of the biggest club centres in the region and the club has a proud history in moving their Auskickers into junior club football
Sunshine Coast – Craig Fox
Craig Fox has done an amazing job at Maroochydore Club Auskick with the centre doubling its participation numbers in 2013.
Craig also plays a big role in ensuring these kids have the opportunity to progress into junior club footy and he was responsible for recruiting a number of quality volunteers to the program.
His proudest moment was seeing one of his Auskickers selected as a nominee for the 2013 Auskicker of the Year award.
Darling Downs – Will Reid
In October 2012 Will put his hand up to start a new club in the South Burnett region. Will realised he needed to be the one out in the community and asked to coordinate/run the Wondai SS Auskick as well as the Kingaroy based centre as well under the guidance of AFL Queensland.
From Will’s hard work and dedication, the South Burnett Saints now have Under 8’s, 10’s, 12’s (and Under 14’s) largely due to the superb effort of Wondai State School teacher Mr Reid.
Brisbane North – Dennis Long
Dennis has run the NAB AFL Auskick program at the Caboolture Lions for a number of years, seeing strong growth in participation along with transition to club football. Dennis is an energetic and enthusiastic Auskick instructor and has received constant feedback and praise from participants and his football club.
Capricornia – Stephen Bird
Stephen was the coordinator at the football club this year and is also a school ambassador at the Taranganba SS – the biggest State School on the coast. Adding to Stephen’s role of Auskick coordinator at the football club he is also the junior coordinator for the under 7, 9 and 11 age groups. Stephen is a great coordinator; being well organised, fantastic with the kids. He also engages the parents and other volunteers from around the footy club.
Mackay – Travis Bates
Travis is a new volunteer who has been extremely proactive in promoting, organising with school contacts and coordinating a majority of the session which resulted in excellent figures in the Central Highlands Auskick centre. Travis has also sourced sponsorship through his position at Rio Tinto for the trip the GABBA for the grid games on the 6th July. Travis is a highly respected, likeable and invaluable asset as a volunteer in our region.
Townsville – Sue and Peter Darcy
Sue and Peter have been absolutely fantastic in the small town of Ingham – 100km north of Townsville – in developing AFL. Although Peter and Sue’s work commitments have meant that haven’t been able to attend all that many Auskicks in Ingham this term they have been instrumental in promoting the game in the North as well as taking extra lessons and training runs for those kids wishing to play AFL. They also travel to Townsville every week so their son can play.
Cairns – David Chambers
David ran North Cairns Club Auskick; he coordinated a group of Under 16 players to help coach the sessions, he coaches junior grades at club football and has been a constant promoter of club football and continuing along the AFL pathway for all Auskickers. He also helped coach the Auskick kids at Cazalys as part of the Auskick half time games during the year.
NAB has been Footifying Australia for over ten years through NAB AFL Auskick, the NAB AFL Rising Stars Program and NAB Cup. In many ways, they have supported some of the AFL’s greats from the grassroots up, whilst growing the game in all corners of our great country (not just on the big stage).
Through support of the NAB AFL Auskick program, NAB continues to Footify Australia; genuinely growing the game at a grassroots level and supporting tomorrow’s stars of football. Every week, over 180,000 children across the country are ‘Footified’ through NAB AFL Auskick.
