Kenilworth Football Club unveils huge honour for John Schulz | Jess Adamson
People like this former undercover cop and Kenilworth Football Club stalwart have always fascinated me, writes Jess Adamson.
Opinion
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I spent almost all of Sunday watching kids’ footy.
It kicked off with an Under 12’s girls’ game at Salisbury North at 9.50am with a chaser of Under 15 boys at Goodwood at 1.10pm.
I donned the red Ground Marshall jacket for the second game, one of the many rostered jobs that comes with being part of a community footy club.
Among other things, it involves monitoring spectator behaviour and language which mercifully was light duties this week. Sadly, that’s not always the case.
Fulfilling those roles occasionally is a small price to pay to have your children playing a team sport.
And compared to what so many dedicated footy volunteers do, it’s a drop in the ocean.
Every single weekend in footy season, someone’s at the ground at first light, putting up the goalposts, placing the cones, wheeling the barbie out and inspecting the surface for anything dangerous.
The number of men and women who give their time – and I mean serious time – to our sporting clubs, for no other reason than to keep them humming along, has always intrigued me.
One of those people is John Schulz.
The now 65-year-old wandered into the Kenilworth Football Club as a 17-year-old to play some footy with his mates.
Forty eight years later and Kenilworth’s newly revamped function centre has just been named after him.
It’s an enormous honour but one he’s not entirely comfortable with.
That’s because Schulzy, or Captain Grumpy, as he’s sometimes known at the club, is a behind the scenes man who has never sought recognition.
He was elected club secretary at the age of 21, served as treasurer, was the club’s football director for more than 30 years and president of the club’s overarching body, the St Mary’s Park Sports Association for 9 years.
He coached the club’s inclusive side, leading them to four premiership flags in their first five years.
He coached the state inclusive side twice, celebrating two wins over Victoria.
For nine years he served on the board of the Adelaide Football League and remains a key member of Kenilworth’s board where facility management is his focus.
He’s seen the club amalgamate with Colonel Light Gardens, and later, de-amalgamate.
And for 46 of the 48 years he’s been at the club, he was working full time as a SAPOL detective, investigating some of the state’s biggest drug and organised crime suspects, including convicted murderer and drug trafficker Domenic Perre.
Now, he’s the Adelaide Football Club’s Integrity and Security Officer, overseeing compliance of the AFL’s rules and regulations and building relationships with the Crows players, but still finds time to drop in to Kenilworth three to four times a week.
Not a week goes by when he’s not collecting the cans and bottles at the club, getting every cent he can from the recycling depot to help run footy programs.
Why?
Why would a man like John Schulz give so much to an organisation when his daughter played just one game at the club?
Perhaps it’s because of the sense of community he found all those years ago. From the age of seven he was raised by his mother after his abusive father walked out and never again made contact.
Sporting clubs give us a sense of belonging that can’t be replicated anywhere else – it’s why so many sportsmen and women struggle to call it a day.
Those around John, including former president of 30 years Rick Bowyer and current president Josh Stevens, say he simply lives for the club.
“I reckon there’s a language somewhere in the world that if you translated it, Schulz would actually mean the Kenilworth Football Club,” Josh Stevens says.
“His contribution over the years has included junior footy, women’s footy, inclusive footy, senior men’s – he’s done everything.
“He’s dealing with the league, organising grants, fundraising – he doesn’t stop.”
Rick says he earned the nickname Captain Grumpy because of his passion for the club.
“John is without question the life and backbone of our club,” he says.
“He’s one of the grumpiest bastards I’ve ever met. He’s walked out on me probably 10 times in meetings – he’ll drive around the block and come back, but I think that’s just part of his intensity which is why he’s achieved what he has.
“He wants to get things right for the club.”
Since 2016 John Schulz has been key to securing $3.5 million in Commonwealth, State and local funding for the Kenilworth Football Club.
When the club took over South Adelaide’s ground, Panther Park, in the mid 90s, the facility had “a shell of a clubroom” and not much else.
They built a makeshift bar that at best, could host 60 people.
Fast forward 30 years and the club’s licensed clubrooms can seat 200 people, there’s a gymnasium, commercial kitchen and canteen and 4 female friendly changerooms.
The ground boasts one of the best surfaces in the Adelaide footy league, hosting grand finals for the last 26 years and Gaelic football in summer.
John is proud of what he’s been able to achieve but says it’s very much a team effort.
“I’m continually amazed by people who put in so much time and effort especially when they don’t have direct connections,” he says.
“We had two blokes who cooked the barbecue, one of them was still doing it at 100 years old – his mate and apprentice was in his 90s.
“It’s probably the sense of community and achievement, whether that’s on field or off field.”
John is captivated by the club’s history and fought hard when he thought it would fold.
“I think it’s the uniqueness of it – the only two clubs that aren’t a district club or old scholars club in South Australia are us and Gaza,” he says.
“We were formed in 1907 and I thought we were going to fold twice.
“I’m thinking, “I can’t let this club die” and then I realised we needed to do something about the facility to make sure we survived.”
The club’s in good health now but there’s concern about the next generation of volunteers.
“Too many of our younger people aren’t developing that community engagement,” John says.
“They don’t seem to understand what’s required in the background and the fact that you need volunteers at 7 in the morning setting up the ground and at 7 at night packing up and cleaning it all.
“What worries me is that I don’t know where our next long-term volunteers are coming from.
“I go to the local council meeting and if I’m not the youngest person there I’m close to it, that really concerns me.”
It should concern all of us.
They say volunteers don’t necessarily have the time, but they have the heart.
John Schulz has an enormous heart and all those who’ve come through the Kenilworth Football Club are the beneficiaries.
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