The Calgary Kookaburras held their 2008 Presentation Night on Friday, October 24th at Bottlescrew Bill's Old English Pub. The night featured the clubs' annual awards ceremony, reports from the outgoing club committee and the election of new office bearers. It was a smashing success.
With social coordinator Elise Botero in control of the evening's proceedings, the event commenced with reports on the great strides made by the club during the year. On-field highlights included the formation of the first women's Australian football league in North America, which saw our
members play 20 organized matches during the summer months. The club steadily grew its player numbers to support our metro league, with 40 girls pulling on the Kookaburra navy, gold and aqua, and another dozen training regularly.Off-field, the club completed a goal-setting exercise and put in place a 5-year plan for growth of women's footy in Alberta. We branded ourselves successfully with a great range of apparel (which is available to purchase, check our our apparel page for details).
We received plenty of media exposure during the year. Articles in the Calgary Sun, Edmonton Sun, Strathmore Standard and FFWD magazine, together with two segments on CTV, increased our exposure locally. Internationally, we also received coverage in the Colorado Springs Gazette, Warrnambool Standard and on two high-traffic footy websites - afl.com.au and worldfootynews.com. Full details are available on our media coverage page. Lastly, our work to establish the new Edmonton Emus footy club, and to build a junior footy league in Calgary during 2009 were elaborated upon.
The outgoing club committee was applauded for their tireless efforts during 2008, and a new committee to lead the club in 2009 was elected. They are:
President - Jake Anson
Vice President - Elise Botero
Treasurer - Beck Jones
Secretary - Amanda O'Rae
Club Development - Vicki Hewitt
Social - Ciara Lanigan
Awards were presented for a number of exceptional efforts in 2008. Beck Jones was named as Best Clubwoman, recognizing her contribution as club secretary, apparel and website organizer and general legend this year. Lori Bossert received the Coach's Award, recognizing her contribution off-field, her commitment to training and games and her improvement throughout the year. Erin LeBlanc was named the Best First Year Player, and also received the award for Best US Nationals Player, where she was best-on-ground in the final.
Gary Jennings of Richmond Hill Wines - our major sponsor - presented the Best & Fairest Awards for the 2008 metro league season to Holly Greatwich of the Hillhurst Nighthawks and to Kathryn Zakus of the Kensington Kingfishers. Both girls played exceptional footy during the season, with Holly narrowly edging our her co-captain Lori Bossert for the Nighthawks award and the Top Goalkicker award. Kathryn was named best-on-ground in seven matches for the Kingfishers to run away with their award. Fraser Rowe of Runge Mining presented the Premiership Cup to the Nighthawks. Full results of the metro league season are available online.
Other highlights of the evening included the presentation of a Kookaburras Life Membership to Meaghan Goodfellow, who is off to play footy in Australia next year, some words from Calgary Kangaroos Coach Troy Rose, presentation of the 2008 US National Championship Cup and a slick slideshow of the 2008 season put together by Lori and Beck. A huge thank-you goes out to everybody to attended and who helped to make the evening a great success. Thanks also go out to each of our sponsors who attended - we'll see you again in 2009 for another awesome season of footy!
We received plenty of media exposure during the year. Articles in the Calgary Sun, Edmonton Sun, Strathmore Standard and FFWD magazine, together with two segments on CTV, increased our exposure locally. Internationally, we also received coverage in the Colorado Springs Gazette, Warrnambool Standard and on two high-traffic footy websites - afl.com.au and worldfootynews.com. Full details are available on our media coverage page. Lastly, our work to establish the new Edmonton Emus footy club, and to build a junior footy league in Calgary during 2009 were elaborated upon.
The outgoing club committee was applauded for their tireless efforts during 2008, and a new committee to lead the club in 2009 was elected. They are:President - Jake Anson
Vice President - Elise Botero
Treasurer - Beck Jones
Secretary - Amanda O'Rae
Club Development - Vicki Hewitt
Social - Ciara Lanigan
Awards were presented for a number of exceptional efforts in 2008. Beck Jones was named as Best Clubwoman, recognizing her contribution as club secretary, apparel and website organizer and general legend this year. Lori Bossert received the Coach's Award, recognizing her contribution off-field, her commitment to training and games and her improvement throughout the year. Erin LeBlanc was named the Best First Year Player, and also received the award for Best US Nationals Player, where she was best-on-ground in the final.
Gary Jennings of Richmond Hill Wines - our major sponsor - presented the Best & Fairest Awards for the 2008 metro league season to Holly Greatwich of the Hillhurst Nighthawks and to Kathryn Zakus of the Kensington Kingfishers. Both girls played exceptional footy during the season, with Holly narrowly edging our her co-captain Lori Bossert for the Nighthawks award and the Top Goalkicker award. Kathryn was named best-on-ground in seven matches for the Kingfishers to run away with their award. Fraser Rowe of Runge Mining presented the Premiership Cup to the Nighthawks. Full results of the metro league season are available online.
Other highlights of the evening included the presentation of a Kookaburras Life Membership to Meaghan Goodfellow, who is off to play footy in Australia next year, some words from Calgary Kangaroos Coach Troy Rose, presentation of the 2008 US National Championship Cup and a slick slideshow of the 2008 season put together by Lori and Beck. A huge thank-you goes out to everybody to attended and who helped to make the evening a great success. Thanks also go out to each of our sponsors who attended - we'll see you again in 2009 for another awesome season of footy!
