At the 83rd Annual General Meeting of the Footscray Hockey Club, current Mens Section Administrator and Club legend Darryl Jahnke was awarded with Life Membership of the club following his efforts on and off the field over many years.
Highlights of Darryl’s achievements and roles within the club are below.
Administrative Roles:
Darryl has 8 years of men’s section admin behind him. Five years as the actual Men’s Section Administrator, and 3 years as an assistant to people like Betts and Tommy G, principally taking care of the ‘Metro’ team concerns (remembering that the ‘Metro’ end of the senior sections were much bigger before re-branding to ‘Pennant’ gradings in more recent years).
Team Management:
In addition to these administrative roles, Darryl has been the men’s first eleven team manager for 7 or 8 years – the last 5 years in Premier League, and previous stints supporting Steve Jensen and Mark Whinney.
Coaching Roles:
Darryl has coached the men’s and women’s first elevens (one year each), and been an assistant coach to Steve, Mark and ______ (there was a third person). Darryl has coached junior teams for FHC for in excess of ten years.
Playing:
Darryl came through all of the junior age-groups at FHC. In total, he has played in excess of 500 games for our Club. Because we were a SL3 club at the time, Darryl needed to leave FHC for a short period of time to be able to experience Premier League standard hockey. Given his enormous investment of time, energy and administrative clout, he is a significant reason why new generations of FHC juniors don’t have to go elsewhere to experience the highest grade of club hockey available. They can now do that at FHC!
Around the Club, Darryl is loved by all because of his easy-going manner, and because of his obvious love for FHC. He is a person who influences so many people in his day to day dealings with them, and is a great ambassador for FHC. In making new male members welcome, he is without peer, from representing FHC with passion when dealing with phone calls from prospective new members, through to taking-in overseas / interstate visitors into his own home – at considerable cost to his own pocket.
When considering the great ‘culture’ that underpins our Club, a culture that sees great respect given to people who have in the past or at this current day done so much to selflessly promote our Club’s operations and image, Darryl Jahnke epitomises the classic great clubman. His service ranks on equal terms to all of our recent Life Member recipients!
Congratulations Yank (pictured right)!
