HAWKESBURY City Junior Rugby League Club was awarded the title of the best managed club by Penrith District Junior Rugby League last week.
It was a big finish to the year for the club, whose A-Grade side had already won the second division grand final earlier this year.
Club secretary Linda Allen said winning the award was a big surprise to everyone involved with the club this season.
She said the committee was completely made up of novices who had no experience running a football club.
“I certainly wasn't expecting to win the award,” she said.
“When I saw the criteria for the award I can see why we won it but I certainly wasn't expecting the award.
“I am absolutely honoured to have received the award. It has been a lot of hard work and it is wonderful to be recognised for it.
“It was a big challenge. We’ve all come together and worked our backsides off. We've all pulled our own weight and we've all done what we had to do.”
Allen said the people on the committee worked to achieve the same results.
“We're there for the children, we want them to play football,” she said.
“We’re there for the children and for that one shared goal so we have a junior league club for the Hawkesbury community.
“We just want to have a community based football club for the families and children to come to.”
Earlier in the year, the club hosted a reunion, which as far as the committee knew, had never happened before according to Allen.
She said one of the things the new committee wanted to do was embrace its history.
“We've had a lot of support from new people in the club and people who have been around the club for many years and it is lovely to have their backing,” she said.
“We have a goal to delve in and find out about the past history of the club.
“We've been going out of our way to find past members so we can honour them.”
Allen added that Penrith District Junior Rugby League had helped out the new committee members to make their job as easy as possible.
Along with Allen, the committee members were: Darren Seddon, Stephen Allen, Alicia Hilder, Marty Hilder, Traci Seddon, Dave Rampling, Shane Madanowski, Steve Petrikas, Sharon Stokes, Ruth Teague, Kathy Milson, Jason Teague and Kelly Madanowski.
The award was for being a well run club on the administration side of things. Part of the criteria was sounds finances, good handling of correspondence, co-operation with other clubs in the district and presentation of the team.
