BRISBANE WOMENS HOCKEY ASSOCIATION LIFE MEMBER MRS RONDA LEE NIX 03/10/1943 LIFE MEMBERSHIP AWARDED: 1995 BWHA Management/Executive 1987-90 Bicentennial Committee 1988 Five Year Development Plan Co-ordinator 1988, 92 Constitution Committee 1988-93, 99 – ongoing U17 Brisbane v Overseas Teams Manager 1989 Grounds Committee 1991, 92 Records Secretary 1991, 92 U18 Selector 1992 Finance Committee 1992 Vice-President 1992 State Championships Brisbane 3 Manager 1992 Fund Raising Committee 1993 QE11 Joint Committee 1993, 94 President 1993-98 U15/U18 Brisbane v South Queensland Country – Technical Bench 1996 QWASC Delegate 1996-98 Management Portfolio – Promotions 1997 Golden Oldies Committee 1999 Veterans State Championship Director 1999 U18 State Championships Director 2000 Brisbane City Council Volunteer Award 2004 U18 State Championships Technical Officer 2006 Open State Championships Technical Officer 2006 BWHA JUNIOR SECTION U14 State Championships Manager 1984, 86 Junior Chairperson/President 1985-89 Junior Fixture & Grading 1986(c), 90 U15 State Championship Delegate 1986 U12 State Championships Brisbane 1 Delegate 1986 Southern Cross U15 Manager 1986 Junior President 1987-89 U15 Selector 1990-95 U15 State Championship Committee 1990(c) U15 Selector 1991, 93, 95 U13 State Championship Convenor 1992 10 year Long Service Award 1994 QWASC Constitution/By-law Committee 1995 QWHA U15 Selector 1988-90, 91(c), 92-94 U13 Selector 1988(c), 89 Championship Rules Board 1988-90 Delegate for ‘Toowoomba’ 1988-92 Junior Development Committee 1990 Open Tournament Director 1991 Delegate 1993-95 SHC Committee 1995 Association Board Secretary 1995, 96 Sponsorship & Promotions President 1997 Life Member 2001 HQ Director of Events 1996, 97 Director of Athletic Development 1998 Long Service Award 2001 Technical Judge 2002 U13 Championship Director 2003 Australian U15 Tournament Technical Judge2004 Premier League Technical Judge 2004 U21 Technical Judge 2006 Open Championship Technical Officer 2006 Australia U21 Technical Judge 2006 Technical Committee 2008 Tournament Director 2008 AUSTRALIAN WOMEN’S NATIONAL VETERANS AA Tournament Director 2008 AA Organising Committee 2008 Hockeyroos v Great Britain Test Series Tournament Director 2008 Started playing: 1957 Clubs played for: Wanderers (Rockhampton - inaugural club member); The University of Queensland; Athletics (Bundaberg). Representative Hockey history: Rockhampton 1958 – 1961 Qld Secondary Schoolgirls 1960 Best 16 Qld Secondary Schoolgirls 1961 (no tour) University of Queensland Intervarsity Bundaberg 1965 – 1968 Fondest Memories: Premiership wins with Wanderers. The fun we had on the many regional trips to Mackay and Gladstone with Rockhampton teams. The long, leisurely train trips along the Queensland coastline picking up teams from towns along the way and mixing socially with their players. We slept where we could - across the seats, on the floor, even on luggage racks - and enjoyed every minute. I have wonderful memories of a championship in Atherton where we played on their golf course (!!) and had an excellent concert at Tinaroo Dam. Where did we find the time? Most Influential Coach: Brian Lloyd (Rockhampton) I played at Rockhampton Hockey Association fields at Callaghan Park North Rockhampton, (later at Kalka), BWHA fields Downey Park Windsor, Brisbane, Bundaberg Hockey Association fields, North Bundaberg, plus many other centres throughout the state. Improvements to the surface and the equipment, plus the rule changes have made the current game much faster and more exciting to watch. I would love to be young again and play under the current rules on those surfaces. The only downside I see is that many players now cannot drive the ball hard. Everyone learned to hit the ball hard on grass or it did not travel. This is the one skill that has not improved. The most memorable things about game days was getting the hockey balls off the clothes line on match morning. (We used to paint the leather balls with white paint, wrap string around the seam, and hang them on the clothes line to dry.) The bike ride to the fields in Rockhampton – it meant we never had to warm up before a game. It was a different matter after a tram ride to Downey Park in Brisbane – there were people jogging everywhere. What was Club very social. There were lots of fundraising activities, dinners, dances, and like when you were parties, but it was all innocent fun – very little drinking, and absolutely no drugs of any sort. I had thirteen years away from hockey from 1969 to 1982 because of my husband’s work. We moved to Brisbane from Weipa in 1981, and my youngest daughter Jacqueline joined Norths in 1982. In 1983 I started attending BWHA junior meetings as delegate for Norths, and so began my second “hockey career”. I became President of Norths Junior Women from 1983 to 1986 and ran several large junior intercity club carnivals there during that time. My involvement with hockey is still ongoing, but there are some particular things I have done in the past 25 years or so which have given me particular satisfaction. One is starting the Under 11 Southern Cross competition in its present form. At a meeting in Ipswich in May 1986 I offered on behalf of BWHA to trial an Under 11 competition at Downey Park in August that year. This tournament was very successful and as a result I offered for BWHA to host the Under 11 Southern Cross at Downey Park on the Sunday before the EKKA holiday each year. This competition is now in its 24th year. While Junior President I had the first dedicated Minkey fields marked after negotiation with netball in 1985, and introduced half field (Modified) hockey in 1987. By 1992 BWHA needed another venue to accommodate all the teams. Nearby Rasey Park was the obvious choice, but it had gone out of hockey’s hands. In my capacity as BWHA President, I was pleased to negotiate a lease on Rasey Park in 1993 so that Minkey and Modified could continue to expand. During my term as Junior President, we held the first Junior Talent Clinic in Brisbane in 1986, long before Queensland hockey became involved in player development. These clinics were held annually until we secured funding to appoint the first full time Regional Coaching Director, Sue McLatchey, in 1993. These clinics and the RCD appointment greatly lifted the standard of our under-age representative players. This had ongoing benefits for hockey not only in Brisbane, but throughout Queensland, as other centres followed BWHA’s lead. In 1995 I organized a South East Queensland Open Women’s competition known as the Southern Cross League which also contributed much to the improvement in the standard play of our senior BWHA players and also the standard of players throughout South East Queensland. Though the future of this competition is now uncertain, it has served a valuable purpose over the past fourteen years. All of this emphasis on player development from Minkey to Seniors finally paid off. They year I retired as BWHA President, 1998, BWHA won every State Championship – U13, U15, U18, and Open. Even the Veterans won – not just Division 1, but all four divisions! My most onerous involvement in hockey over the past 25 years has been my involvement in the achievement of the State Hockey Centre while I was President of BWHA. I was initially the BWHA representative on the Joint Committee charged with securing a home for hockey for Brisbane and Queensland. I subsequently became secretary of the Joint Committee, then Secretary of the State Hockey Centre Association. This position required the writing of over six hundred letters, keeping the minutes, preparing many submissions to government both state and local, and attending at least four meetings per week over a three year period, lobbying ministers and public servants, all done while fighting constant political battles on every side. The goal was achieved however, and hockey now has a home where it is in charge of its own destiny, where both women and men have equal access to the fields. .