For your child to play football the team needs to provide a coach, a ref or 2 and, if possible, a manager from the parenting pool. We urge you to give consideration to taking on one of these roles. Not only is it good for your child to see you being an active part of their sport but it is very rewarding and avoids burnout of others. Unfortunately many teams are left with one parent trying courageously to do it all and the kids miss out. Coaches shouldn't ref. It is bad for the team as the coach can't focus on the team's performance when they are focused on enforcing the rules. Similarly a coach who is focused on player rotation and keeping times can't coach to their best. A winning team has all the parents working together to make it happen for their kids. Here are the roles and what they involve:

Coach:

Prime Role: giving the players the skills, knowledge and motivation to play well and enjoy the game.

Commitment: min 1 hour midweek training plus Saturday game time.

Attributes: Enthusiasm, patience & sense of humour. You need to be competitive and instill a winning attitude in your players. You need a desire to improve your coaching and be willing to attend occasional courses.

Manager:

Prime role: team administration and communication.

Commitment: flexible but must attend games to assist coach

Assist coach with communication to parents. Organise gear and player rotation so coach can concentrate on the game. Keep team stats.

Referee:

Prime role: referee team games with impartiality

Commitment: attend reffing courses and be available for games

The Barbecue: The club puts on a barbie at Pemberton Park most weekends. It is a great fundraiser as well as being much looked forward to by the players.  While we will have a roster of grade 4-7 teams, teams can request to operate the barbie as a "Team Fund Raiser". They can use all the net profits (50% of the take/gross profits) for any team related activity, be it uniforms, tournament travel expenses or end of season get together. If your team wants to do that please contact the Secretary to book the week. Your team will be responsible for the barbie for all of that morning.

Here's what happens.

• Everything will be there and ready to go.

• Your team will be rostered on barbeque duty. This will happen probably twice in the season. If a team requests the barbeque for fundraising, unfortunately you will miss your time on the tongs

• First Kicks teams will operate the barby from the start of their games (8:30) until the fundraising junior team arrives to take over if applicable. This will ensure a good load of snags for the mini players.

• G8-G14 teams will take over at 9:00. They will operate the barbie till the last game and then clean up and put it away.

The Committee:

This is a small group of parents who run the club and work with the Regional organisation to make football happen for our kids. It's extremely important that the club has a strong, well supported committee and that every year new parents join up for a year or two, to avoid burn out. If you are interested in finding out more, or attending a committee meeting to find out more about how it all works please contact the Club President, Theo Ursum.