By Aydan Kelly
With the cricket season about to get underway, Glasshouse District Cricket Club is celebrating a surge in junior participation, with some age groups recording significant growth.
The club has reduced junior registration fees to $200 this season, allowing eligible families to use the State Government’s $200 Play On! voucher to cover the full cost of registration.
Club president Jeremy Schultz said the initiative was designed to make cricket more accessible and encourage more young players onto the field.
“Our club is sort of taking a hit in that sort of way where we’re not making as much money, but we’re just trying to generate more membership,” he said.
The club’s under-12 ranks have grown from one team last season to three this year, while teams from under-10s through to under-16s have already been filled.
“Normally we’re sort of scratching for numbers all the time,” Mr Schultz said.
“This year we’ve already got our teams filled from under 10s all the way through to under sixteens.”
Mr Schultz said the club had spent years developing a welcoming culture focused on getting people involved and enjoying the game.
“We’ve really worked hard in the last five to 10 years of creating a culture where everyone’s included,” he said.
“It’s very much family based.”
While the club wants to be successful on the field, Mr Schultz said wins were not its only measure of success.
“We want to be winning games, but it’s not the barometer that we set ourselves or that we judge ourselves on,” he said.
“We just want everyone to enjoy playing cricket.”
That focus extends into the wider community, with the club supported by local sponsors and in turn helping with community events.
“So for us to give back, we try and assist them in their events, so we’re quite active in the community, in the local community especially,” Mr Schultz said.
Anyone interested in getting involved can contact the club through its secretary or social media, or head along to a training session, which generally run from Monday to Thursday.
Glasshouse’s Division One side began its season over the weekend, with the remaining teams set to follow in early October.