FOR the first time, newly arrived adult migrants in Melbourne’s west have been given the chance to get involved with community football through umpiring.
A newly formed Diversity Umpiring Academy in Flemington is providing men and women of African and Somali backgrounds the opportunity to integrate into the local community as well as earn an income through umpiring.
WRFL Umpire Appointment Board Secretary Rene Van Kuyk said up to 15 people were involved in Tuesday’s session.
“We did some boundary skills, some drills and a little theory, but the session was mainly about getting the participants used to handling the ball and learning the basic skills of the game,” he said.
Van Kuyk says the western suburbs has a rich variety of multicultural communities and said it was important we welcomed everybody into our game.
“We tend to get a lot of young people looking to become umpires each season so we’re delighted to be able to teach some older participants not only umpiring skills, but more importantly life skills which they will be able to use going forward which is really pleasing,” he said.
The aim of the Diversity Umpiring Academies is to educate multicultural people about AFL, with the hope they will be able to adjudicate a community football match later this year.
AFL Victoria Umpiring Development Manager Neville Nash said the Diversity Umpiring Academy in Flemington was the first of its kind to offer the program to adults.
“Our other two Diversity Umpire Academies in Coburg and Shepparton provide multicultural secondary school students the chance to learn how to umpire Australian Football, but this one encourages people of all ages, genders and abilities to get involved,” he said.
“We have worked really closely with African Australia Community to generate some interest within the community and already we’ve seen some enthusiasm with 15 people signing up for the program.
“One of the issues facing a number of migrant people is the ability to gain employment, so by teaching them how to umpire, they have the chance to not only learn new skills, but earn some money and make new friends in the process.”
The Diversity Umpiring Academy classes run for 16 weeks every Tuesday at 120 Racecourse Road, Flemington between 5:30pm-6:30pm.
Picture: AFL VICTORIA
Last Modified on 22/02/2017 10:41