AN upcoming book is tracing the history of one of Ballarat\u2019s oldest football netball clubs.<\/p>\n
The work, titled A History of the Sebastopol Football Netball Club 1879-2022 has been penned by Michael Cooper, who was been involved with the board since 2000.<\/p>\n
Cooper started working on the book in about 2019, and with records slim on the club\u2019s past, he said there was a need to collate everything they could find.<\/p>\n
\u201cPast players have always been requesting this, for some sort of a history,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cOver a long period of time, the club didn\u2019t keep a lot of records.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen I was in the office one day many years ago we came across 300 pages of hand typed extracts from The Courier from 1880 to 1973.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat formed the basis of commentary in the early years. I relied on these and our annual reports that started back in 1974.\u201d<\/p>\n
The book\u2019s more than 200 pages and about 50 images features paragraphs on individual years and the netball club\u2019s establishment in 1991 as well as listed honour boards.<\/p>\n
Cooper said he was influenced by other club publications such as “100 Years On” Centenary Ballarat Football League 1893-1993 in crafting the book.<\/p>\n
Fourteen individuals have been highlighted with their own sections whom Cooper said were integral to the club\u2019s development.<\/p>\n
The back of the book feature\u2019s a section on Cooper\u2019s own background and decades-long relationship with the club.<\/p>\n
A former reporter covering sports in Bacchus Marsh, his association with the club began in 1985 when his son, Peter, started playing for the \u2018Burra.<\/p>\n
Cooper said collating the book has given him a greater appreciation for the significance of the Ballarat Football League and Sebastopol\u2019s role in it.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe BFL was actually formed in 1893 as the Ballarat Football Association. Ballarat and Sebastopol were two of the original association clubs,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cUp until that time there seems to be lots of scratch matches with goldmine staff and there were teams like Yarrowee and Soldiers Hill. Everyone had a team.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe biggest impact I\u2019ve felt is the development when they started in 1893 with a senior team. Today the club has 32 teams that compete including their netball teams.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn doing this project it came to home to me on how many thousands of people would have gone through the club.<\/p>\n
\u201cBallarat, Redan, Ballarat North, East and Sebast, in Ballarat city there are five teams.<\/p>\n
\u201cTo me it shows how big an industry the BFL is to Ballarat and what Sebastopol did to that. I marvel at the number of people and volunteers that have kept this all going for the past 150 years.\u201d<\/p>\n
With A History of the Sebastopol Football Netball Club 1879-2022 now off to the printers, the book is set to be available mid-next month at the club\u2019s website.<\/p>\n
At an expected cost of $50, all proceeds will go back into the organisation.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
AN upcoming book is tracing the history of one of Ballarat\u2019s oldest football netball clubs. The work, titled A History of the Sebastopol Football Netball Club 1879-2022 has been penned by Michael Cooper, who was been involved with the board since 2000. Cooper started working on the book in about 2019, and with records slim […]<\/p>\n