As a long time sports coach and father of four, I have strong beliefs about the importance of participation in sport and the availability of safe communities to provide children with the opportunity to explore their own boundaries, get outside and grow. Through team sports, our children learn to be more resilient; that it is great to win, and that winning doesn’t always happen. Learning to lose a few, get over it, build the mental strength to turn up and have another go and to enjoy the experience builds character.
It is important to me that our community and Council supports existing sports and recreation clubs and looks for opportunities for new activities to have access to the right spaces.
The Tablelands weather and lifestyle is great for outdoor activities. We have wonderful parks, lakes, the dam, bike paths and access to a lot of National Parks.
It is critical we work as a community to:
- Keep these spaces
- Maintain them well
- Keep them safe.
Many locals know my son Bryce Stroud and have followed his journey from local BMX to Utah Tech with a degree in Sport Science, majoring in Biomechanics, as well as his world Mountain Biking career. We know, working hard to be a champion when you live in a regional area is an expensive journey. Just continual travel to Cairns, Townsville or further afield to compete in regionals requires high fuel budgets and often means parents have to travel during working hours – forced to take leave.
Providing stronger local competition helps build the experience required to minimise extensive travel and costs to the community.
Why Sports and Recreation are important to me
As a sports coach I have seen time and time again the importance of competition to create strong kids. Kids that can learn how to feel excitement, nerves and pressure. Sports and recreation give them the tools to be exposed to normal human experiences that sets them up to be strong people who can get back up again and again.
As many of you know I am a long-term sportsman (Cricket, BMX, Mountain Biking, golf touch footy and anything motor sports) and sport fan. In my early life I was a water-skiing instructor and spent time in the US coaching as well. I have coached many children, young athletes through to elite athletes in the local region and across Qld. Many are state and national champions now who share their success stories with me still, racing BMX and Mountain Biking professionally around Australia and overseas. When I get a spare minute, I still love to keep active playing golf, riding mountain bikes, skiing or a simple game of ping pong.
As you can see, I care about seeing our kids getting quality sports experiences and I will be passionate in supporting facilities improvement and sports asset management to continue to develop healthy local families.