Oscar Hulbert, 14, challenges David Ceeney for possession in last season’s cup final – the Rangers’ division 7 men versus Rangers’ division 6. 75141
By Russell Bennett
DAVID Ceeney remembers the days of the Sherbrooke Rangers soccer club struggling with its only ground at Menzies Creek.
But he also knows just how far the merged Monbulk Rangers have come since.
“I’m just immensely proud of the growth we’ve seen at the club,” he said.
“It’s fantastic to be a part of.”
Ceeney was recently nominated for Senior Sportsperson of the Year at the State Government’s Community Sport and Recreation awards.
But it’s a nomination he’d prefer to share with the team of four other hard-working men and women, who seven years ago presided over 41 teams and more than 500 members.
“We had so much support,” Ceeney, 55, said.
“When I started, there were eight teams.” Ceeney and his “team mates” including Lisa Doolan, Karen Job, Ivana Scott and Wayne Conder chased local grounds to play on, organised finances and food and beverages, and arranged 41 sets of uniforms.
Ceeney also coached four Rangers teams at the time, and coached two just last season.
He said he was proud of the club’s ability to have fathers and sons playing alongside each other – strengthening the Rangers’ family atmosphere.
“The youngsters first start at the lower levels,” he said.
“Our main aim is participation, but when they get older they can play on the same teams as their parents.
“We’ve had three or four mothers in their 40s play alongside their daughters too.”
The Rangers boast a women’s team that is one of the state’s elite.
“And it’s all off the back of that one ground at Menzies Creek,” Ceeney said.
“We’ve done so much from nothing.”
He said the club’s soon-to-be home on Old Emerald Road in Monbulk will “secure the sport of soccer in the ranges for years” and had one key difference over local Aussie Rules clubs.
“Footy is town-based,” he said.
“But soccer is regional.
“We’re really the only soccer club from the hills, so this is huge for us.”
Ceeney said local soccer could learn a lot from grassroots AFL in the way teams and clubs were built through their juniors.
He said he was nominated for the Senior Sportsperson of the Year for his work over his years in hills soccer but his proudest achievements came in his involvement with the club’s Goal Kick clinic – like a soccer Auskick.
“It’s for four to eight year olds and it has about 80 participants,” he said.
“It’s just wonderful.”
Ceeney said he has made some great friends at the club and still can’t believe how well some of the former under-7s and under-9s are now performing at senior level.
“Seeing the smiles on all their faces just makes you smile,” he said.
Over the next 12 months, Ceeney said he and the rest of the Rangers team will be working hard to set up disabled or handicapped soccer teams.
“It’s an area that’s just been ignored for too long.”
