Hervey Bay Soccer

The Hervey Bay Soccer Federation was formed in 1999 after a number of parents and officials of junior soccer looked into the declining numbers of competitive players. Their investigations found that parents were pulling their children out of soccer at the competitive ages as, at that time, the controlling federation required the teams to travel 38 km to another town to play. This posed a problem when the family had children in other sports or in non competitive grades playing in Hervey Bay. There was also ill feeling when Hervey Bay competitive and senior teams were required to travel the 76 km round trip when playing another Hervey Bay team.

It was decided that a committee be formed with the intention of forming a new federation. To support the new federation four clubs were formed and named Bay Side Strikers, Sandy Straits Sharks, Kawungan Whales and the Fraser Coast Anglican College. As the Fraser Coast Anglican College was already established and catering for their students, the 400 registered juniors were allocated to the three new clubs. After several approaches and submissions to the Queensland Soccer Federation (QSF) and as many knock-backs, the decision was made to seek affiliation with the Christian Soccer Federation (CSF). Hervey Bay was eagerly accepted by CSF, offers of support and invitations to carnivals poured in.

The committees of the new clubs had to move quickly to be ready for the coming season. They had to find coaches, strips, equipment and sponsors, then form the teams for the competition. The job was made more difficult by the tremendous response to the sport now that soccer had a home in Hervey Bay. Registrations grew from 400 to 780 with many of the competitive and senior players returning to the sport.

(To be Continued)