Editor:
Anyone who has ever volunteered knows it can be a thankless task. Volunteer your time to help develop soccer on the Sunshine Coast, and you'll probably find this to be particularly true.
Many of those who step up do so because they love the game.
Take Sean Whalen, for instance.
Sean has presided over the Coast men's league for the better part of the last decade while also coaching youth teams and organizing summer seven-a-side, co-ed soccer.
Those roles involve countless hours spent doing everything from lining fields, attending meetings, answering phone calls and writing endless emails. By comparison, and somewhat ironically, the time spent actually playing or coaching the game is minimal, as Sean and other volunteers will no doubt confirm.
And the response to all those unpaid volunteer hours? Complaints - about rules, about refs, about fields, about schedules - and complaints about complaints.
This week Sean stepped down as league president. The league will be lucky to find another person willing to take on the workload and the abuse. But if the league does find someone, and you happen to be dealing with the new president - or any volunteer for that matter - take a moment before you make a request, express an opinion or call to complain. Are you willing to step up as a volunteer? If not, then maybe start with two simple words - thank you.
And Sean, on behalf of the adult soccer league, team reps, referees and everyone else involved with soccer on the Coast, thank you. For the quiet dignity you brought to the role of president and the untold unpaid hours, thank you.
Hopefully we'll see you back on the field playing some day.
Neville Judd
Sunshine Coast Adult Soccer League
