SPORTING clubs around the globe have taken a hit from the affects of the COVID-19 pandemic, but the impact hits closer to home in smaller regional communities.
The Naracoorte United Soccer Club is an example of that and it will be tested over the coming months.
For club president Jonathon Thurlow it is a disheartening time for players, officials and supporters.
“I think everyone at the moment is just disappointed to do a pre-season and it sort of work out for nothing,” he said.
With no sponsors committed for the 2020 season and limited player registrations before the cancellation of the Steeline Cup – which was soon followed by the postponement of the premiership season – it puts the club in a tough position.
“We have just shut up shop sort of thing, shut everything down at the club and turned all the fridges off to save power and money,” Thurlow said.
“Mowing the lawn is about all we are doing at the moment.”
Thurlow said there is no doubt the prolonged break will have an impact on the club, but he hopes all involved at Naracoorte United – sponsors included – can find their way through the tough patch relatively unscathed.
“We have not got any sponsors this year,” he said.
“The week coronavirus sort of started kicking off, I was starting to do my sponsorship stuff, so I stopped.
“Half of the businesses that sponsor us now are shut and they are not making any money, so you cannot go and hit them up because they are just in survival mode.
“We have only registered about 15 people (players) and I have offered to give them their money back in case they have lost their jobs or whatnot.”
For a club without a large member base and which had started to show improvement over the last couple of seasons, putting a hold on operations is far from ideal.
However, Thurlow said at the moment it is just about preserving what the club does have.
“Everyone is just trying to do something at home to keep fit and keep sane,” he said.
“I have been trying to find some skills at home videos and that sort of thing to post on Facebook for the kids to try and keep them entertained.”
Adding some extra salt to the wound is the progression shown by Naracoorte’s junior grades during the off-season.
“I worked hard all summer to get our Under 17’s together,” Thurlow said.
“We have not had an Under 17’s for two years and the last three weeks before we got called off we were getting 15 kids out, who were all keen.
“Some of them did not speak English, but they were going to play.
“You just wonder if we get called back on for a shortened season whether they are going to come out.”
In addition to that, the cancellation of the South Australian Junior Soccer Association state championships comes as a heavy blow to a few rising talents at the club and they will keep their fingers crossed the country championships in August do not suffer the same fate.
As is the case around the nation and the world, there is little to be done and Naracoorte joins the countless sporting groups, businesses and organisations in the waiting game that is 2020.
