We often hear how volunteers are the lifeblood of Netball in South Australia. Year in, year out, countless women and men give their valuable time, effort, and love to our great sport.
Without them, we would simply not be here. Some give a lot in a short time, while others dedicate years, if not decades, to the game they love.
But so few can say they have given what Jan Summers has given to netball. It’s only fitting that she calls time on her volunteer tenure exactly 50 years after it all began.
A lot has changed since she first joined the Country Champs Organising Committee back in 1970, including becoming a Netball SA Life Member in 1984.
In her own words, Jan has penned a letter about her journey.
In 1970, I started working on the Country Champs Committee helping to prepare the draw and printing the programme.
The programme printing was done on a Gestetner machine (no computers in those days).
If you made a mistake you had to wipe it out with something that looked like pink nail polish.
All the recording was done by hand, I think we had a calculator for doing percentage.
There was a group of willing workers who helped organise every year.
The Fisher family, the Wright family and the Fryar family who probably took it in turn to be organisers of the Country Champs.
In those day we also prepared all the food sandwiches, meat, salad and cooking 70 dozen eggs. We had a wonderful group of men who cooked the BBQ.
For a couple of years, we slept at Edwards Park so we would be there early for food preparation. Barbara Martin was the organiser of the food.
After the matches were finished, we then had our emu parade to clean up the courts for the next day.
After several years it was decided for each team to have a tent and some associations put all teams in a large tent.
You all remember the creek at the back of the courts, well we had heavy rain and the tents all flooded on several occasions. Not happy campers.
We then moved to Mile End where things were a lot different. Food was provided and we were now into the computer age. We also had people to clean the courts at night.
This made things a lot easier.
Yolanda Cannizzaro was the organiser at this stage. Marlene Lang was always busy with the umpires.
It was wonderful each year meeting up with country people from the Riverland, Hawker West Coast and South East also Kangaroo Island. Wonderful friendships have been made.
The committee changed from being all city people to country, representing their regions.
Everything is now done by people with computer skills which makes it very easy. No more writing up score cards by hand and sitting with a calculator working out percentages.
I had many years on the Adelaide Metro Committee and working with the State League
I had several trips to New Zealand with Adelaide Metro representative teams.
My wonderful family gave me every Saturday to go to netball, so my husband was taxi driver for the children’s sports.
Thank you to the netball family and Netball SA staff who helped me along the way.
I have been in netball for 50 years and have enjoyed every moment of it.
I am now watching the great grandchildren play many sports: Netball, Aussie Rules and Rugby.
Life after netball. I have been living in a retirement village for 23 years and helping look after the elderly.
I am still in contact with the old brigade going out to lunch and playing cards.
I hope that next year there will be more Thunderbirds netball on TV.
Jan Summers
1970 - 2020
