Dear Clubs, Players, Managers, Officials and Friends of HCCF,

Well the 2020 season is now officially completed with the running of the Iuliano Campbell Shield between the champions of divisions 1,2 and 3 and the Central Coast Christian  Football season winners at Tuggerah over the weekend just gone. All 3 teams represented HCCF and their respective churches in a manner which we can all be proud. For those who did not see the results they were :

Division 1\A Grade – New Vine Maryland defeated Green Point Baptist Church 1 nil.

Division 2\B Grade – CC Impact defeated Mayfield Baptist 1 nil

Division3\C Grade – Maitland Baptist drew with Terrigal All Stars 3 all.

As a result of this, HCCF retained the Shield as the current holders. We look forward to hosting this next year,  hoping to retain the shield for a third straight season. This is really a great chance for our two competitions to build a strong bond and healthy competitiveness.

HUNTER CHRISTIAN CHURCHES FOOTBALL ASSOCIATION - 2020 SEASON WRAP UP

Well now on to our regular HCCF season, if we could call it that, is going to be one we will always remember. In my 15+ years on HCCF MC this year threw challenges at us that we never faced previously, let alone considered. As a whole we only got through this season by all working together and allowing God to guide us in what we needed to do. As much as some of the decisions made were not popular ones, they were definitely made in the best interests of all Clubs, players and officials and the general community. We certainly have learnt lots and will be better for this knowledge moving into next season, one in which we will still most likely be needing to work within  the government confines caused by Covid-19.

On behalf of management, we would like to say a huge thanks to all clubs, players, managers and officials for making the 2020 season another great one for Hunter Christian Churches Football.  We thank you for the way in which you all turned up each week, following our Covid-19 protocols and then played in the true spirit of Christian Football. We will continue to pray that all players and Churches have been blessed by their participation with the HCCF competition.

Grand Final Day at Maitland showed us a Sunny, but very windy day for the grand finals to be contested this year. It was the only day all year spectators were allowed by HCCF due to the easing of restrictions 2 days prior, and It certainly was great to see some spectators again and thank them for their willingness to comply with the directions and limitations still needing to be in place. It was great also being able to provide live streaming of the Ladies 1 and Open 1^st Division grand finals through our Facebook page thanks to Thought Fox Media Group. We would like to thank Michael and his team for the great work they did and are looking into future opportunities to possibly live stream more games. If you have not already done so, I strongly recommend looking up our Facebook page and having a look at the coverage of the games.

Our 2020 HCCF Champions, Finalists and Premiers are:

                                                Champions                                                         Finalists                                                               Premiers

Women’s League 1          New Vine Maryland                                         Thrive Church                                                    New Vine Maryland 

Women’s League 2          Goodlife Church Toronto                              Hamilton Baptist Church                               Hamilton Baptist Church

Open Division 1                 New Vine Maryland                                        Goodlife Church Toronto                               New Vine Maryland

Open Division 2                 Mayfield Baptist Church                                 New Vine Lakes                                                 Mayfield Baptist Church

Open Division 3                 Maitland Baptist Church                               Swansea Baptist Church                                Swansea Baptist  Church

Open Division 4                 Hunter Christian Church                                New Vine Maryland                                        New Vine Maryland 

Open Division 5                 Grace Presbyterian Church                           Evangelical United                                           New Heights CC

Open Division 6                 Cardiff Heights Baptist Church                    Maitland Baptist Church                               Cardiff Heights Baptist                  

Congratulations, once again go to the Premiers and Champions from each division. We also congratulate our Club Champions for 2020 who were Goodlife Church Toronto (Major) and New Heights CC (Minor).

This year’s Roy and Helen Fitzsimmons Best and fairest award was shared between Murray Halyburton (C3 Newcastle) and Lachlan Nesbitt (New Vine Maryland), We would once again like to pass on our congratulations to both these gentlemen for their wonderful 2020 season.  

THANK YOU

We also would like to say thanks to the HCCF referees for their contributions in seeing games played out as smoothly as possible, not only on grand final day but also week after week in the regular season .Our Grounds Officer, Keith Smith once again kept our fields marked and ready for play. We would also like to take this opportunity to thank Keith for the countless hours he has put in over the years, in this role helping HCCF.

We once again put together an online survey and would like to thank everyone that took the time to complete this. As in previous years, this feedback on your season helps us with future planning and allows us to consider improvements that can be made. 

This year We would also like to thank two local businesses in Allpro Eco-Friendly Solutions in Sandgate for sponsoring and supplying us with all our cleaning and hand sanitiser products required, and Newcastle Property Maintenance Group who looked after the cleaning and stocking of our amenities to ensure we remained compliant with our COVID-19 safe plan. Both of these businesses blessed HCCF and provided this support free of charge this season. This support certainly helped more than words can say.

Finally I would like to say a huge thanks to our management committee who put in countless hours of their time and energy week after week in uncertain times to allow not only our 2020 season to start but to keep going, whilst trying to make our competition the absolute best it can be. The passion shown by this group for HCCF and the ministry it provides ‘For God through Sport’ is so evident, that I personally blessed to lead such a committed team. Their passion is shown in that we still meet up every two weeks to try and ensure that HCCF continues to grow and provide opportunities for people to know Gods love for them through HCCF.

Please continue to hold HCCF up in your prayers as we seek to bring honour to God through the ministry of football.

God Bless,

James Smith
President