Steph Contin named South Australia’s 2021 AFL Community Football Volunteer

There’s nothing this North Gambier super mum wouldn’t do to get children on field and it’s not hard to see why she has been named SA’s 2021 AFL Community Football Volunteer.

If football is the heart of a country town, it’s the volunteers like Steph Contin who keep it pumping.

The North Gambier Football Club volunteer is rarely seen without a bag of gurneys in need of washing and she’s the first to help out an opposition club or the struggling umpires league.

Yet she remains in disbelief after being named South Australia’s 2021 Toyota AFL Community Football Volunteer.

Steph Contin with North Gambier junior players. Picture: Jessica Ball

Contin is a mum of six, an Auskick administrator, North Gambier junior football co-ordinator, senior club secretary, women’s team manager and a Limestone Coast AFL Women’s League executive committee member.

She runs the canteen, organises the merch, registrations and uploads scores to SportsTG.

When Covid-19 hit, Contin added Western Border League delegate to her commitments and played a pivotal role getting a junior 2020 season up a feat made even more difficult with teams on both sides of the SA-Victoria border.

“I just wanted to be a part of getting the kids out on the park last year,” Contin said.

“A game of football or a training session with a group of kids could be a kid’s only outlet, could be an adult’s only outlet, could be the one positive thing in their week.

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“Trying to keep the football club going during Covid is a really tough gig.

“It was actually a really good success for what we thought was going to be an absolutely dire straits year.”

Contin got involved with the club when her eldest son started playing junior football.

He’s now 19 and three more sons have joined the Tigers and taught her how to bounce the ball before she lined up in North’s first women’s side.

The passionate women’s football advocate is determined to create pathways for and upskill the next generation of local female footballers.

“I’m one of five siblings, three brothers, I’ve been around footy forever,” she said.

“I’ve just always loved it but never thought at 34 I would play.

“Coming into football I had no idea, I don’t know how to protect myself and I think that’s a bit sad.

North Gambier's Steph Contin, pictured with her sons Kane and Cooper Harris. Picture: Jessica Ball

“My daughter, she might not ever want to pick up a football or she might love it, but just to see the recognition, that they can play whatever they want.”

The humble Contin listed off the names of volunteers she believed even more deserving of the award but was pleased to see country football recognised and thanked those past and present for keeping local sport alive.

“It doesn’t matter who you play for, what colours you wear, community football as a whole is just really important across Australia,” she said.

“It doesn’t get done without the volunteers.

“There’s a lot that’s unseen, unheard, very unpaid, but at the end of the day you do it for the kids.

“The hard work is worth it, all the meetings, all the to-ing and fro-ing, all the emailing, all the phone calls.”