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House of Assembly - Fifty-Third Parliament, First Session (53-1)
2014-05-06 Daily Xml
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Elizabeth Vale Soccer Club

Mr ODENWALDER (Little Para) (17:08): Thank you, Madam Deputy Speaker, and let me be the first to congratulate you on your elevation to this august position. I just want to speak briefly today about an event I attended on Saturday night in my electorate. It was the celebration and the grand opening of the refurbished clubrooms of the Elizabeth Vale Soccer Club.

I have spoken many times in this place about my love of soccer, for a start, and the importance of junior soccer, particularly, as far as I can see, in the northern suburbs. The Elizabeth Vale Soccer Club is a club that has remained close to my heart, largely because it was the club where my son Jimmy started what he calls his 'career' with the under 6s. He has since moved on, but we still have fond memories of young Jimmy running around with the rest of them like a little pack of dogs with their coach Bert Fuda, who is still quite a character around the place and a character in local junior soccer.

As I said, soccer is important in the northern suburbs, particularly due to the history of British migration there. There are certain clubs that engender a certain kind of loyalty and have a certain place in the fabric of the local community up in the North. The 'Downs' is one of them and I know there is a really strong rivalry between the Elizabeth Downs Soccer Club and the Elizabeth Vale Soccer Club which reaches a head once a year with their senior's match, which is one of the big events in local soccer.

Para Hills is another one of those clubs, which I believe is in the seat of Playford in the health minister's electorate. But I think Elizabeth Vale Soccer Club has to be close to the top of the list. It was established in 1961 and it was one of the founding members of the South Australian Amateur Soccer League. It has a rich history and it currently has about 500 members: 60 senior men's players, 30 senior women's players and 10 junior teams in the Elizabeth and Districts Junior Soccer Association.

I was really proud and pleased that this club received $200,000 from the state government under the Facilities Grant Program and, credit where credit is due, they received over $200,000 from the City of Playford. This means that the club has been completely transformed. It has new change rooms, a new kitchen, and an entirely re-fitted hall and bar area. This means that not only can the club be a hub for local soccer, as it has been since 1961, but it can also contribute to the community in many other ways and people can hire out this really high quality facility. Sadly, high quality facilities like that are few and far between in the northern suburbs, and this is now one of them. It joins Elizabeth Downs Soccer Club which also recently received similar funding.

I want to congratulate Steve Woodward and the board for pursuing this project and for securing such a large amount of money. This is also largely due to the former board member, Adam Driscoll who, along with the City of Playford, guided the project and made it happen. Again, I want to congratulate all involved and I hope that they have another 50 years of success in the local soccer league.

The DEPUTY SPEAKER: Member for Flinders.

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