A real team effort

Alstonville couple Jan and Russell Priddle have contributed greatly to the local football community.

One of the great pleasures in my role at Football Far North Coast is meeting people who are at the grassroots level in the game. At one of our biggest clubs, Alstonville, the husband and wife team of Jan and Russell Priddle (pictured) have been a part of a committed group that has seen player numbers in the village grow significantly.

The story behind how Jan and Russell first got involved in sport is similar to many people. Their eldest son Andrew started playing in 1986 and when a coach could not be found in 1987, Russell agreed to help.

The next year saw Russell progress to the committee, with his devoted wife Jan doing the job of gear steward and quickly becoming junior carnival co-ordinator. With Russell being elected club president in 1989 and Jan showing a great flair for organisational skills, the husband and wife team were destined to become entrenched in the club, which was evolving as the small community grew in population.

Both were born and bred locally – Russell at Fernleigh and Jan at Knockrow – and each was raised on traditional local farms of dairy, beef and pigs.

It is clear that ethics of hard work and sound values shaped the outlook that has influenced every aspect of their life. Against a backdrop of working on the family farms, both attended school locally and after meeting through the Bangalow Rural Youth Group, Jan and Russell’s life together saw Jan train as a teacher in Goulburn before finding her way back home where she married Russell in 1974.

With sons Andrew and Matthew, this couple has made a home in Alstonville for the last 36 years. With Russell retiring in 2009 from his job at the Department of Agriculture and Jan also retired, one may expect that they would have also put soccer to the background.

This is far from the reality however as they have missed only one junior carnival since 1986 and had the wonderful honour of both being awarded life membership of Alstonville Football Club in 1996.

With grandkids now the centre of their world, this extraordinarily generous couple continue to nurture the more than 620 junior players currently on the plateau by being actively involved in every aspect of the club’s operation.

They say that is better to give than to receive, and to Jan and Russell, I say thanks for what you have given with such abundance and enthusiasm to thousands of people in our football community and beyond.