Volunteer AJ Jauncey is excited to see athletics making pace on the Beaches
As he nears his third summer season as president of the Manly Warringah Little Athletics club (MWLAC), Andrew ‘AJ’ Jauncey leads at an exciting time. The club recently merged with the Manly Warringah Athletics Club, which caters to adult or master athletes, to become one inclusive organisation for athletes ranging from ages five to masters – Manly Warringah Athletics (MWA).
AJ says with the consolidation, MWA is likely to ‘get close to 1,000 registered participants,’ potentially making it one of the largest sporting organisations on the peninsula.
It’s a boom for the club, which suffered post-COVID-19, with both attendance numbers and volunteers dropping. That’s when AJ, noticing a lack of helpers, put his hand up to help.
“The reality is that sport in Australia operates on the back of volunteers,” AJ says, explaining that his own parents would often volunteer at the sports clubs he was involved in growing up. “For me it was a bit of a natural path that if I wanted my kids to have opportunities then at some point, I’d have to put my hand up and take on some volunteering hours.”
AJ started as an equipment manager, a role he shared for a few years, before moving on to the president role. It’s a position which currently sees him investing 10 or more volunteer hours a week, which he fits in around his job, heading up risk and compliance at the Clean Energy Finance Corporation.
AJ enjoys his role with MWLAC, especially as he gets to spend time with his sons Ethan, 15 and Flynn, 12 who, through Little Athletics, have found an interest in javelin.
“They had a little bit of success at their school carnivals, but Manly Warringah is such a strong athletics club that for the first few years they really didn’t make it to any representative level,” AJ says. “But my eldest, Ethan, just qualified and went to his first national championship this year.
“I reflect on his experience and think, well, that’s in a lot of ways what encompasses the Little Athletics mantra – stick with it, give it a go – and he’s done that,” he said, adding that Flynn has also had recent success, qualifying for the state championships.
With the merger now in place, AJ says he may try some of the events. “I will have a go, and quite a few of the committee members have said the same thing, which probably speaks to the fact that if we provide a platform, people will participate,” he says. AJ cites research that from the Australia Sports Commission which shows that children’s involvement in sport increases dramatically if their parents are involved – either actively or in a volunteer role – too. “That gave me a quite a bit of heart that we’re on the right path with what we’re doing,” he says.
AJ is also pleased with the news that $6.7 million has been allocated in the NSW Budget to upgrade the synthetic athletics track at the Sydney Academy of Sport in Narrabeen, which is home to the MWLAC, but has been unusable for two years due to bubbling on the track. “We’re very much looking forward to having it back in action,” he adds.
The future of athletics on the Beaches is looking good. “I’d like to think that when my time is up as president, that I’ll have been part of some real, positive change, both at our club and for the sport more broadly across NSW.”