For Paul Smith, there is nothing better than seeing a young shire junior make it on the big stage.
The long-time Sutherland Sharks president has been awarded Football NSW’s most prestigious accolade, the Charles Valentine Medal, for more than half a century of service to football.
Smith has dedicated his life to the game in the shire which has included 26 seasons as a player and 21 years of coaching. He has also given 16 years as an administrator including his 13 years at the helm of the Sharks and work to improve school football in the shire.
“I just enjoy seeing the kids that come through,” Smith told the Leader.
“It’s a thrill to watch kids that started off playing grassroots football here with us play in the A-League, national level, international level or overseas.
“Brendan Gan, Tommy Glover in England at Spurs, [Alex] Gersbach at Rosenborg, Ben Folami at Ipswich, Chris Ikonomidis, Jack Duncan... to see kids like that come through and reach their potential is really satisfying.
“[The award is] just a bit of recognition for the work done around the place, I guess. Obviously you don’t do the job for anything like that. I’ve always just wanted to see football progress in the shire.”
Smith started his playing days at Caringbah Rangers and Cronulla RSL before playing youth league representative football in the shire. That eventually led to helping Sutherland get promoted in 1971. Smith was part of the Sharks’ first grade grand final win in 1978 and loss in ‘79. Injury hit him at the age of 21 which saw him get his first taste of coaching, first with Sutherland’s third grade side, then at Lilli Pilli.
Smith became involved off the field at Sutherland to help the club rebuild after it had fallen on tough times. And with the Sharks’ recent NPL 1 under-20s premiership, Smith is confident the club’s future looks bright with former Socceroo Grant Lee as first grade coach.
“Hopefully we can get back to our halcyon days,” he said.
“In 2007 to 2014 we had a really good period there. We want to get back to that and make sure the club is there for the young players coming through. We need to make sure the club stays in the top division so that pathway remains.”
Smith thanked his wife, Debra, for putting up with the many long hours at Seymour Shaw as well as the many past and present committee members who helped keep Sutherland going over its 82-year history
Smith also paid tribute to the work of John Hills, whose sponsorship through his business Pipe King has helped Sutherland immeasurably.
“We owe so much gratitude to John Hills for what he’s done for the area,” Smith said.
“I don’t think we appreciate what he’s done for the shire. He virtually rescued representative football and kept that pathway open. When he decided to come on board it really allowed us to step up the budget a little bit. He had the trust in me to stick with it.
“He’s been unreal. His funding [of Seymour Shaw Park’s synthetic pitch] has allowed us to generate a bit of income from summer soccer as well. He has the same view as mine in that we want to see football in the shire go from strength to strength. He insists on young players being brought through and supported.”
Sutherland Sharks striker Tomohiro Kajiyama was also named the joint winner of the NPL 1 golden boot award at the Football NSW National Premier Leagues gold medal dinner. Kajiyama shared the award with Sydney United 58’s Panny Nikas, with the pair scoring 13 goals each last season.
Rockdale City goalkeeper Ante Covic was also the joint winner of the goalkeeper of the year award alongside Sydney Olympic No.1 Paul Henderson.