Narrabri Junior Soccer Club named NNSWF’s club of the month for July

Narrabri Junior Soccer Club’s hard work and dedication to the sport have led to it being named Northern NSW Football’s club of the month for July 2022.

NNSWF’s Northern Inland regional officer Mitchell O’Keefe visited the club’s home base at Gately Field on Saturday, August 6, and he presented committee members with the award.

It was the fourth time in two years that the club has been recognised for its achievements after president Danny Laws was named the Northern Inland Football referee of the month in October 2020 and then the NNSWF volunteer of the month for June 2021, before secretary Sam Lubke-Wood was a finalist for the NNSWF volunteer of the year award earlier this year.

Laws told The Courier that he was proud of all of the club’s committee members, players, parents and refs, who he said had contributed to the club’s success and deserved recognition for the award.

“We are very humbled to receive this award,” Laws said.

“Over the past three years, we’ve gone from a committee of four to a committee of 10 members, who are all eager for the sport to grow.

“We have seen an increase of about 30 per cent of young participants over the past two years, with 20 per cent of those being female.

“We have had a few setbacks over the past several years – losing our roof at our clubhouse, running the canteen from pop-up tents for two years with a committee of four, then COVID-19 and all the lockdowns and no sport, and the one that hurts the most, the sudden loss of our longest-serving president and long-serving committee member Graeme Sunderland.”

The club’s 2022 Graeme Sunderland Memorial Carnival was washed out on Sunday, August 6, and Sunday, August 14, and the club will have a third attempt at hosting it on Sunday, September 11.

The 2022 season will then wrap up with grand final and presentation day on Saturday, September 17.