Most of the time we do not pay much attention or talk to our Life Members to learn more about umpiring and how we can improve the discipline we umpire in and how we can achieve our goals.
All our Life Members are humble and inspiring. They all have stories to tell and experiences to share.
The latest umpire to receive Life Membership of the NCCUA is no exception to this rule. In fact he epitomises what umpiring is about.
We are proud to introduce and welcome Mr Steve Welsh as our newly inducted Life Member of the NCCUA.
For those who don’t know Steve, there are so many superlatives that describe Steve and his positive attitude to umpiring and life in general. Steve is humble, thoughtful, considerate, hard working and caring (just to name a few traits of this wonderful umpire).
The following is some of the football history of Steve Welsh.
“Steve started playing footy in 75 (that's the year, not his playing number) for Bomaderry Tigers. He played one forgettable game of rep footy. The legend tells that Injury cut short a brilliant playing career.
He moved to Wollongong and played for University and Shellharbour. Again injury cut short a brilliant career. Although the rest of us would say that injury did Steve a favour, having watched him try to kick a footy around socially.
Steve’s work took him away from footy between 1982 and 1994.
Work bought Steve back to footy in 1995. He was teaching with some blokes who took a team away for a week to contest PSSA Rugby League. He needed to get in on that junket, but Australian Football in the South Coast Region already had a coach....... and he wasn't budging.
Research showed that the Hunter region didn't have a PSSA Australian Football team so he transferred to the Hunter in 1996 and started a PSSA squad in 1999. To get some idea of the junior talent available he began to umpire juniors and was put in touch with the umpires and the Newcastle AFL.
Allan Ward asked him to get on board with the Newcastle Juniors when the GSJ Newcastle competition was in its infancy. He continued to have various roles, including umpiring in the NAFL, NJAFL and now with the NCCUA; until injuries cut short...................... (there seems to be a recurring theme in this article)
Well not quite. So far in 2008, this has been the first full season (relative to other seasons) injury free for yonks. Of course a glass of cold Coopers pale ale helps with those injuries or that’s what we are reliably informed by Steve.”
Of course let’s not forget one major area where Steve has shown how big his heart is, fund raising for charity. Steve is major driving force behind Movember (raises funds for Men’s health issues like Depression) and also Call to Arms. In 2007, the NCCUA Movember team, headed by Steve raised over $3000 and the NCCUA raised over $400 for Call to Arms. And from all indications, Steve is preparing the NCCUA for the 2008 Movember campaign.
The statistics for Steve and his umpiring in the Black Diamond AFL competition to the 2008 competition are that Steve has umpired:
39 Black Diamond Cup games as a Field Umpire
36 Reserve Grade games as Field Umpire
35 Under 18's games as a Field Umpire
110 Total BDAFL games
Congratulations Steve on a well deserved award and recognition of your achievement and what you have given to umpiring and we hope to see around the footy fields in years to come.
Last Modified on 09/10/2008 08:02