Rocky Sports Club's ready to unite local sporting teams
The sporting landscape in CQ is set to change dramatically.
Rockhampton
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TALKING with the founder of Rocky Sports Club, it's almost impossible not to be swept up in his vision of uniting Rockhampton region's sporting clubs under the same roof.
The philosophy is simple, instead of small sporting clubs struggling to be noticed and advance their agenda, they'll band together as a united group under the one roof in a spirit of cooperation to advance the interests of all local sporting codes.
Rocky Sports Club was the brain child of born and bred Rockhampton local Gavin and his wife Tanya Shuker, who won the tender for the vacant CQ Leagues Club last September and wanted to give local sporting clubs in the community a somewhere to call home.
"I'm chairman of Queensland Touch at the present time and I just see all the time individual sports fighting individually rather than together,” Mr Shuker said.
"The idea was to see if we could band together with a few sporting clubs, for them to have a place to call home, to have their meetings and functions here, to be a club of the community.
"We were thinking eight or so to start off with and then its gone and really hit a nerve in the community and kind of caught on fire.”
He said there were so many clubs, events and associations that were just "screaming for a home, just want to call a place home”.
Last Saturday, Mr Shuker threw open the doors of the Lions Creek Rd venue welcoming in sporting team representatives and local political dignitaries including Senator Matt Canavan, Rockhampton MP Barry O'Rourke, Rockhampton Region Mayor Margaret Strelow and RRC councillors to explain to them the concept behind Rocky Sports Club.
He was expecting about 80 people to attend, what he got was 280 people cramming in to hear what he had to say.
"We've had 20 sporting clubs sign up already and there was another 12 to 15 that were here on the weekend having a bit of a look, it looks like over half of them will sign up,” he said.
"In the end we'll look at having over 30 sporting clubs and associations that are signed up to be a part of the Rocky Sports Club.”
These sporting clubs included netball, softball, rugby league, touch, swimming, darts, bowls, dragon boating, canoeing, cycling, road running, triathlon, squash, tennis, basketball and others.
"With that number it works out to be about 8000 people just in the local community, that's without the associated family members of those people so we actually have a target to get about 20,000 members,” Mr Shuker said.
"If we band together, we have a real voice for what the community wants rather than fighting as individuals.”
Mr Shuker said as a collective, they were determined to work hard to see improved facilities and infrastructure for all of the diverse sporting codes hailing from the area.
"It makes it easy for politicians have a group of 20,000 coming to them, then they know that this is something that the community really wants,” he said.
He was offering the clubs the ability to have a home without charging them for the privilege or forcing them to change their name.
"It's nothing to join, they can come and leave as they please, they don't have to sign anything, they don't have to do anything it's just if they want to join, it's just a place to all home,” Mr Shuker said.
As a not-for-profit organisation, Mr Shuker's club intended to set up a loyalty program and to do work helping and supporting other sporting groups.
Mr Shuker revealed plans to open in the first week of April and the club was currently in the midst of a staff recruitment drive which had generated tremendous public interest.
"We announced on Monday that we're calling for job applications and the response has been unbelievable,” Mr Shuker said.
"Over 15,000 people hit the page in less than 24 hours for 50-60 jobs for the local area, which can only be a good thing.
"On our Facebook page there's a link there to apply.”
ROCKY SPORTS CLUB
- 20 sporting clubs joined already
- 30+ clubs expected to join
- 8000 sportspeople expected to join
- 20,000 sportspeople & families anticipated to be involved
- 50-60 jobs advertised
- 15,000 hits on the website on first day
- Visit their Facebook or www.rockysportsclub.com.au
Originally published as Rocky Sports Club's ready to unite local sporting teams
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