By Marcus Uhe
Over the Christmas period, the Star News’ sports team will be re-sharing some of the most popular stories from over the course of 2023.
Thank you for supporting our newspapers over the course of the year. We hope you enjoy the selection and have a wonderful holiday period, however you choose to celebrate.
Officer City Soccer Club may have only been on the local sporting scene for a handful of years, but their impact on the community is already gaining state-wide recognition.
At last week’s Victorian Sport Awards, the club was acknowledged for its commitment to support growth, inclusion and participation in the community with the Community Sporting Club of the Year award for 2022, becoming the first football club in the award’s 10 year history to take-out the honour.
The award recognises the outstanding contribution made in 2022 by a community sporting club and/or association who has demonstrated a strong commitment to supporting participation in sport and active recreation, with a strong focus on inclusion and the removal of barriers due to cultural background, gender, identity and other denominations.
Through the running of a number of social entry-level programs such as Go Girls and Girls United, female children are offered the opportunity to learn and participate in the sport at a casual level before making the commitment to playing in a proper season.
Those initiatives, along with Football Victoria’s CALD United program, saw Officer City experience an increase in female membership of 36 per cent, and even break new ground for the club.
“We put our hand up for the CALD program and it was for the CALD-only girls in our community,” Radmila Dyson, the club’s Equity and Inclusion Officer, said.
“That sort of led to, all the girls that joined that program and the Go Girls program, have progressed into teams, which is not our end game, it wasn’t about competition, it was always about everyone being able to have a go at playing the sport.
“But literally all the girls within a month of doing these casual programs, have all said to their parents ‘we want to be in a team.’
“So our club going from no girls teams, to this year having three girls teams, is a reflection on these programs that we’ve run.
“I think, what a game-changer for us was, having the programs for girls only.
“There was a lot of parents that were bringing their sons down and not having their daughters involved, but once we started the girls only programs, that’s when we started seeing a mass influx within the club of membership.”
Another of their successful programs was ‘Casual Kicks,’ which President, Cheree Appledore, said “came out of the blue”.
“What we were finding was that, we might be halfway through a competition season, but we’ve got parents reaching out saying that our child is really interested in sport, in soccer, and really wants to try it.
“We (the committee) thought, a lot of clubs will go ‘sorry, we’re full,’ so as a committee we had a conversation to say, ‘what can we do with these players that just want to go out and play?’, so we created Casual Kicks program.
“It helps kids get involved in the sport and then if they do want to progress to the competition, they know what’s involved for later.”
With a committee featuring more females than males and the club itself sporting a number of female coaches, Officer City has the goal of being the “football club of choice” within the Cardinia Shire and surrounding communities.
If bestowments continue to accrue and innovation keeps pace, there’s no reason why they cannot achieve that lofty ambition.
“Like someone said to us the other night, we’re breaking the glass ceiling in our area,” Dyson said.
“Not just for our sport, obviously football wasn’t prominent in our area, but also females in our sport, which is amazing, a great outcome.
“Like I said, we don’t aim for things, they’ve just naturally progressed.”
Consider the fact that the club is yet to establish a home base and currently operates at Lakeside Recreation Reserve, the only way appears to be up.
“The club is growing, we don’t want to make the focus about the facilities and we will be capped at some stage as to how big we can grow, but we won’t turn anybody away,” Appledore said.
“These programs give people the opportunity to play, and the more people that play, obviously, it’s great for the sport, it’s great for their personal health and development, and socialisation.
“We will continue to run these programs and hopefully continue to run these programs, so that people do get the opportunity to come out and play and enjoy the sport like we do.”
