Volunteers needed to keep clubs alive

SPORT is such an intrinsic part of the Bass Coast and South Gippsland area and despite many leagues resuming play in 2022, it still is yet to fully recover. 

The virus has devastated volunteer numbers, something Dalyston Football Club president Andy Thomas agreed on in an interview with the Sentinel Times recently. 

“It’s how we are at the moment as a community, there’s less and less time to volunteer, it’s not only sports clubs, its schools and any organisation that requires volunteer help,” he said. 

“Over the last three years, with COVID, there’s been a reluctance from parents to get out in the community, kids have got used to playing on their phones, that plays a part."

Despite the changes in society and the lack of volunteers at his club, and across the board, Thomas remained optimistic about the future and stressed the importance of others following his lead. 

“We’ve just got to be able to bounce back we’ve got to encourage the parents and kids to get back out there and be involved in not only sport, but in life,” he said.

 
“Otherwise, we’re not going to be social and it’s going to put everyone back in their communication.”

Sport is clearly a strong driver in living a healthy lifestyle no matter how people involve themselves in it, whether it be playing, coaching, being a club member or of course, volunteering. 

Knowing this, Thomas continued to push the benefits of getting young kids and their families involved with a sporting club.

“It’s a more balanced person that comes out of playing sport, you learn how to win, you learn how to lose, you learn how to be social and interact with other people,” he said.  

“The best way to ‘fix it’ is to get people involved with their kids because they have an invested interest in it, they want their kids to do well so they’ll come along to help.”

Having volunteers that possess an invested passion in the club, team or sport is an invaluable asset. 

“Many hands make light work,” Thomas said. 

Sport has the potential to return community life back to its healthiest level, but it cannot go ahead without passionate volunteers taking up the many jobs each club has.

Volunteers are the lifeblood of any club; they are a key cog in the production chain of running a sport as Thomas explained. 

“There’s just a general thing around, where kids aren’t playing sport, and if they’re not playing sport their parents aren’t involved which means there’s less volunteers,” he said.

“It’s like a cycle really.

The cycle of sport at any club begins with junior participants and their parents or guardians volunteering to fill necessary jobs such as coaching, umpiring and timekeeping to name a few.

“We’re no different to a lot of other clubs as far as volunteers go, no club is immune from it, everybody’s got to have someone helping out,” Thomas said. 

The cycle is in trouble especially in this area, where three different clubs all have at least one junior team out of the competition due to lack of numbers, Thomas’ Magpies being one of them. 

“This year we haven’t had under 12s or under 14s, Wonthaggi haven’t got under 16s, Killy-Bass haven’t got under 18s,” he said. 

Dalyston is a proud club with a long, storied history and a great culture, and Thomas preached the opportunities they have at junior level and the importance of competition. 

“We’ve got the opportunity; it doesn’t make sense for teams to have 32/33 players per team when Dalyston don’t have any in their under 14s and under 12s.

“We need to promote competition, if the likes of the Dalyston’s and the Bass’ are gone in five, ten years because we can’t get juniors, it puts the pressure on the likes of Inverloch and Wonthaggi,

“Where are they going to be playing?”

It may not be as easy to solve as the Daly’ president makes out, but clubs may ultimately lose their junior foundations and all the vital volunteer hands that come with them, if no action is taken. 

When asked how the community can help or get involved, Thomas responded by mentioning the importance of getting involved in sport again.

“We’re just looking for commitment from parents and kids to getting involved in sport, not just football, but basketball, cricket, volleyball all of that,” he said. 

“It’s going to require a little bit of thought from the whole football community as to how we go forward when you look at juniors, and volunteers.
The success of clubs and leagues hangs on getting it right.”