July 4th, 2018
Every Month
- Thunder Spotlight
- Thunder Talk
- Where’s Thunder
- Thunder & You
In This Issue
- Thunder Coaches
- Did You Know?
- Mario Aparicio
- Skilled Volunteers
- SAP Roundup
- Thunder & 2nd Nature Football Camp
- Clive Berghofer Stadium
- From the Thunder Chairman
Background Image: Keagan Sheridan
Thunder Spotlight
Keagan Sheridan - SWQ Thunder FC Men
Player Profile
First Junior Club you played for & age?
Highfields Football Club
What is your personal aim this season?
To sustain & constantly perform at the highest level I can for the teams benefit.
Your favourite food?
Tuna, Spinach & Brown Rice
Pre Match Superstitions?
Prepare with good foods, always put my left sock, boot & shinpad on first!
If you could attend any sporting event in the world, what would it be?
Would have to be the World Cup Finals!
What training drill do you dread the most?
5 minutes run is torture
One word to describe you?
Focused
Best quote you’ve heard?
Positive thoughts bring positive outcomes
If you could have one superpower, what would it be?
To be able to Teleport.
Background Image: Louise Rolfe | SWQ Thunder FC Women
Thunder Coaches
Education Evening
SWQ Thunder Coaches recently participated in a Coaches Education Evening with visiting Western Sydney Wanderers, NYL Strength & Conditioning Coach, Rafique Hassim. Rafique is visiting the Toowoomba region as a Guest Coach at the Thunder & 2nd Nature Football Camp.
The SWQ Thunder FC Board and Coaches are committed to providing quality coaching to our Thunder footballers and participate in every opportunity to expand their knowledge base.
The U18 Boys Team were selected as the training team for the demonstrations on the night.
Thanks to Rafique Hassim for an informative, educational and enjoyable night of football.
THUNDER TALK
- Great to see former Thunder Keeper, Anthony Passante, return in the Thunder Men vs Olympic FC match. Thanks for putting the gloves on for Thunder!
- Thunder Players have been scoring HATTRICKS again, Chloe Hutton put a fantastic 4 goals past the keeper (U17 Girls vs Logan Lightning) & scored 4 more the next week (U17 Girls vs Gold Coast United), M Lockwood scored 3 goals (U17 Girls vs Logan Lightning), Maddie Sansbie netted 3 goals (U15 Girls vs Mitchelton)
- Thunder Goalies have been keeping CLEAN SHEETS, great hands J. Vandervolk (U13 Girls vs Logan Lightning), N Stevenson kept a clean sheet 2 weeks in a row (U15 Girls vs Logan Lightning & vs Mitchelton), S Bradbury (U17 Girls vs Logan Lightning), Jayden Richardson (U20 Youth vs Brisbane Olympic), Mario Aparicio (Men vs NQ United FC)
- SWQ THUNDER FC’s new favourite person is sports journalist Jason Gibbs from The Chronicle! Thanks Jason for your positive and informative articles on our Thunder Men & Women! #partnerships #subscribetoread #jasonrules
- Well, we said Farewell to our Thunder Men’s keeper, Jacob Sayle, in the June newsletter, only to have him return to Thunder and Toowoomba for the Men vs Brisbane Strikers match - thanks Jacob! #cantstayaway #thunderfamily
- The Cans Bar was pumping for the Thunder Men vs Brisbane Strikers match - Thanks to the Toowoomba Football Old Boys for coming along and supporting the bar, the club and the Men! #oldboyscandrink #everyoneiswelcome #canbarcrew
- Club Spirit Award goes to SWQ Thunder FC Men’s Players Chris Hatfield, Keagan Sheridan & Travis Cooper (pictured above) who regularly turn up to support our Junior NPL Boys, Junior WNPL Girls and our SAP teams! #dontmindthebeers #thunderpride
- Luke Lister (U18 Boys) & Eli Adams (U16 Boys) havé again been selected to play in the FQ - Joeys Pathway in Brisbane. Both SWQ Thunder FC footballers were part of the team who played in front of the Australian Joeys selectors for the second time this year! Well Done Eli & Luke!
- Ciao Federico! - It is with sadness that Thunder says a premature goodbye to our international recruit, Federico Brusaca. Fed has returned to Italy to pursue further football opportunities in his home country. Federico’s last game for the Thunder Men was verse Olympic FC where he was given a red card in the dying minutes in a fiery hard fought match!
- Introducing our fantastic Thunder supporters, who bring the Drums! to our Thunder Home Games! Great Job Guys 💪 and if you have a drum or can make some noise come along and join The Kulele Boys at our Thunder Home Games!
- A Local Toowoomba Football Identity enjoyed his time at the Can Bar for the recent Men vs Olympic FC Game! The same can’t be said for the Olympic FC Right Back Player (#2), who copped a fair spray of witty football oneliners from the local identity! #canbarbanter #guesswho
- Has anyone else spotted our Thunder Coach David Park-Ballay getting out and about wearing his French Football Teams Jersey! Viva La France! #roadtorussia #areweallfrenchsupportersnow
Background Picture: Fletcher McDonald | SWQ Thunder FC U20 Youth
DID YOU KNOW?
FOOTBALL QLD ANNOUNCES FINALS series FOR JUNIOR NPL & WNPL
FQ has just announced that for the first time in 2018 they will be introducing a Finals Series for all age groups involved in the NPL, NPLW & FQPL competitions.
Finals football is exciting edge of your seat matches and while we may not have every team featuring in the playoffs this is a great incentive for our players to dig in and to keep improving in these last few games.
The top 4 teams on the ladder will go through to the finals series - which teams are close to making it? With so much of the season left we have a good chance all across the club, but our strongest chances looking at the ladder right now are the SWQ Thunder FC U17 Girls.
Our Thunder U17 Girls are currently sitting in 4th place on the ladder and well within reach of making it to the finals playoffs! Keep up the great performances on the park ladies!
The Thunder U18 Boys sit in 5th place and are certainly capable of bettering their position to make a run for the finals berth.
The U14 Boys in 6th & U13 Girls in 7th may both still be in the hunt if they can put in some solid performances over the coming weeks.
Best of luck to all of our Thunder Teams, keep working hard, keep improving and keep chasing those wins - you never know what you can achieve if you believe.
For more information on the newly minted finals series please head to the FQ Website or check your emails from SWQ Thunder FC in the coming weeks for information to be released.
DID YOU KNOW
That Thunder have previously won the FQ NPL U18 Boys Premiership Title!
Our 2016 Under 18 Boys squad secured the 2016 Under 18s Premiership for the first time in the club's short history, the first in any age group. The Thunder boys were not knocked off top spot all year and won the league in style with three games to spare!
You will see some familiar faces in the squad who are still with Thunder this season. (Mitchell McLeod - current U20 Youth Player, Chris McCarthy - current U20 Youth Player, Kimba Kibombo - current Men’s Player, David Kuanza - current U20 Youth Player)
MArio Aparicio
We welcome our new Thunder Men’s recruit, Goalkeeper Mario Aparicio, to the team. As you may all know, Mario is our current SWQ Thunder FC Goalkeeper Coach and we are excited to have Mario join us as part of our player cohort.
Mario played in his first Thunder match in Townsville vs North Queensland United FC in our 1-0 win.
The Thunder Family would like to express our sincere condolences to Mario and his Family on the sad passing of Mario’s Mother. We extend our heartfelt appreciation for his commitment, to the club and the team, for putting on the gloves under incredibly sad circumstances. We are very saddened to hear of your loss, our hearts go out to you in this time of sorrow.
Our U9 SAP Boys are having a busy 2018 football season! The team had a ball at Lazer Tag and Bowling on Friday Night. A great way to promote team building off the field!
U12 BOYS SAP TEAM - SWQ THUNDER FC
What a super effort from the U12 SAP Boys against a very skilled & physical Gold Coast team. The boys went down 4-2 but won the second half with goals, passing and strength on the ball.
The more training the boys have with Thiago, the better the boys are getting. Coach Thiago had some magical motivational words for the boys at half time and WOW! they showed it in the way they played the rest of the game!
A superb effort from Josh Zahra scoring the 2 goals, Sam Wilson named Man of the Match, backed up by a great team effort. Also thanks to Jayden Richardson, from our Thunder U20 Youth Team, who refereed the game.
This year, as a result of a number of FQ changes and lack of numbers in the younger girls age groups, Thunder FC’s girls SAP program had to be revisited & somewhat re-invented. A decision was made to combine the small group of U10s with a similar sized group of U11s into one team that would play in the local U11 mixed Challenge Competition. Toowoomba runs two competitions in this age group, referred to as Challenge and Community Competitions, with Challenge being for the stronger teams.
At these ages, and between the two gender’s the differences can be immense, so asking the girl’s to step up and play against physically bigger and stronger opponents was always going to be a big ask, especially given that we also have limited numbers. Having only 10 registered players, which allows for only one sub in games, if all are in attendance, the team embraced the opportunity to give it a go. The same SAP program run with the boys has been run with the girls, who have religiously attended training 3 times a week, with an attitude and commitment that has been a pleasure to witness.
The girls, had some mixed results in the first few games, but have now started to employ what they have learnt and by playing to their strengths are starting to get some great results. Currently the girls have won 6 games and lost 4, a record their coach is proud of, but they are less than happy with. This bunch of very competitive, very determined, very talented girls love their football, and whilst chasing results is not the focus of the program, they most certainly bring their best to every game, and chase the win with everything they have.
The girls have also loved being part of the wider Thunder community, having attended a number of Senior’s games as mascots and having enjoyed Senior players visit their games. The decision to have this team play games locally is starting to see additional benefit as a number of girls who otherwise play elsewhere are keen to be involved in the future. These little stars of the future are a pleasure to be around four times a week, but I do wonder sometimes who is coaching who, because there is no doubt as to who is in charge… Bring on next term….
Skilled volunteers
We need you (and you and you and you!! 😁)
Volunteer Physiotherapist or Sports Trainer
SWQ Thunder FC is looking for a volunteer Physiotherapists/ Sports Trainer to attend the Thunder Women Team at Home Games. If you think that you could spare your time and expertise or know of someone who can please get in touch via email - swqthunder@gmail.com
Volunteer First Aid Attendants
SWQ Thunder FC is calling for volunteers who hold a current First Aid Certificate to attend Junior home games. The volunteer would be required to attend to any sport injury to both home team and opposition players. Ideally we would love to have several volunteers to share the load!
We are also offering anyone who is interested in the role First Aid Training at the clubs expense!
Please email swqthunder@gmail.com if you could be of help..
FOOTBALL CAMP 2018
THUNDER & 2ND NATURE
The Thunder & 2nd Nature Football Camp 2018 kicked off this week with great enthusiasm from players and coaches alike. The fields were full off eager footballers ready to soak up all the information from our Head Coach & Thunder Men’s Player, Travis Cooper.
Guest Coach, Rafique Hassim, from Western Sydney Wanderers, was a popular addition to our lineup. There was great excitement when our guests from Brisbane Roar, Abbey Lloyd & Dylan Wenzell-Hall attended the camp to meet and greet all participants.
Everyone had an enjoyable and beneficial football experience.
MASCOT MANIA
Pittsworth vikings Soccer Club
Great job from the Junior Pittsworth Vikings who were invited to the SWQ Thunder Men vs Olympic FC at Clive Berghofer Stadium recently. They did a great job escorting the teams onto the field and performed ball boy & girl duties.
They finished off the night chatting on the field with our SWQ Thunder FC Men’s Team.
Clive Berghofer stadium
SWQ Thunder FC recently had a fantastic weekend of home games all held at Clive Berghofer Stadium!
We are grateful to the Stadium management for allowing all Thunder teams to play at the grounds, a treat for us all!
Thunder had a full weekend of 11 games over 2 days - we must also give a big shout out to all of the Volunteers on gate duty, bar duty, set up/pack up, Ground Officials and Announcers - Thank you all for giving your time for the Club.
Background Picture: Mackenzie Robinson| U17 Girls SWQ Thunder FC
From the thunder Chairman
Mandy Adams
It’s been a year of changes for SWQ Thunder and although we as a Board are constantly working to extend our resources and implement strategies to improve the Club it has been brought to our attention (thanks WNPL) that the Clubs members don’t often hear about the progress of these external projects. So this information is us sharing a little of what we are working on, outside of the extensive day-to-day operations of a Club of this size.
Your board members hold the following portfolio’s:
- Chairman: Mandy Adams
- Finance: Jon Hayne
- Football Operations: Janelle Sothmann
- Football Operations Assistant: Sue Lister
- Media and Communications: Laurie Passante
- High Performance Football Operations: Jason Hall
- Business Development, Infrastructure & Governance: Dan Clifford
- Game Day & Volunteer Co-Ordinator: Trevor Howard
Collectively this year we have identified area’s that need improvement and we are responding currently to some feedback by working towards better communications through the Club as well as improving support and education of Coaches. I’m sure you’ve noticed our increased profile in the Media this season - our regular Newsletters and our elite Academy offered during the holiday period, the increased support from community clubs with mascots at our Home Games, new Club Sponsors, the SAP programme, introducing ‘wellness’ sponsors available for education on prehab and rehab, mentoring & team coaching for the senior teams – all these things ensure we continue to develop as a Club and support us as we create pathways for all age groups to realise their dreams of playing elite Football.
We continue to lobby for a permanent home for Thunder with the appropriate infrastructure to allow administration and expansion within the group and this month will specifically include meetings with Local Council, and other state authorities continuing this process. Although we may need to reschedule games and training fields (sometimes inconveniently) this is often the result of changes outside our area of control – we are governed by Football Qld in both administration and the implementation of the FFA National Curriculum. In the future we can look forward to being part of the Charlton Sports Precinct but in the meantime, we continue the process to secure a ‘home ground for Thunder’ at the Captain Cook fields. This has so far been more than a 2-year journey and has been assisted by previous members of the Board, partners of Thunder and current Board Members including Wade Eiser, Peter Munster, Nigel Fanning, Jon Hayne, Mandy Adams and probably others – identifying potential training fields, applying for grants to light these new fields, and liaising with Council to allocate a ‘priority use’ to us as a Club. Although we haven’t yet established a home ground specific to Thunder we have finally secured training fields for the WNPL teams at Kearney Springs and this is a great success for Thunder…. The new lights are installed and we are just waiting for Ergon to light them up , and our WNPL teams will move all their training sessions to those fields. We have also purchased two new Bow Nets for the girls teams.
This month the board has spent time creating strategies for governance of the Club at a new level – this includes things such as creating a Membership Supporter Group within our regional football community with benefits to members from our sponsors & increasing our profile throughout the region…. We are working on processes for trials at the end of the season, preparing budgets for next season, and continuing with the exhaustive administrative processes required to allow us to continue to hold our licenses for SAP, WNPL and NPL into 2019.
Individually each board member has a lot of work to do during the week after our day jobs (some days it’s a really big job) - Collectively we meet regularly to make decisions on behalf of the players & members of the Club to ensure we grow stronger and better every season. What we need now is an army – parents & friends to come to games, helpers volunteering for the small jobs on Game Days and support finding Sponsors. The potential for success is huge and every single one of us plays a part. We’re ready when you are………………..
SWQ Thunder FC Chairman - Mandy Adams
Where’s Thunder
Wrap up of the NPL Competition Ladder and where the Thunder teams are on the ladder (current at time of publishing).
NPL Swq thunder fc
- U13 Boys - 11th out of 11 teams.
- U14 Boys - 6th out of 11 teams.
- U15 Boys - 8th out of 11 teams.
- U16 Boys - 8th out of 11 teams.
- U18 Boys - 5th out of 11 teams.
- U20 Yth - 10th out of 11 teams.
- Men - 10th out of 14 teams.
**Some NPL teams have a Game in hand.
WNPL SWQ Thunder FC
- U13 Girls - 7th out of 13 teams.
- U15 Girls - 8th out of 13 teams
- U17 Girls - 4th out of 13 teams.
- Women - 14th out of 14 teams.
**Some WNPL teams have a Game in hand.
Thunder & You
Newsletter information
Don’t forget that Thunder Express is happy to take submissions from Coaches, Players and Supporters. If you have some news, photos or gossipy tidbits that you think should be included in our club newsletter - pass it along by sending the information to the Thunder FB page by private message! #cantwaittohearfromyou
Save the date
July 14th - Clive Berghofer Stadium
SWQ Thunder FC is inviting our Sponsors to our local Derby match vs Western Pride FC. We would love the Thunder Family to come along to the game to support our team & show the Sponsors our appreciation for their generous support! Highfields FC Juniors will be Mascots for the event, so come along and have a great day at the football!
Schedule - 14th July
- U18 Boys - 10.30am vs Western Pride FC
- Women - 12.30pm vs Brisbane Lions FC
- U20 Youth - 2.30pm vs Western Pride FC
- Men - 5.00pm vs Western Pride FC
Credits:
DSL Photography