Unsung Heroes: Jason Reid’s three decades in driving community sport

We know all too well how crucial volunteers are to the maintenance of community sporting clubs — from coaches and managers to parents and admin, they truly are the life blood of our community. But Bunbury man Jason Reid goes one step further, passionate about seeing the next generation of sports stars thrive, and nurturing their skills to unlock their potential. Actively involved in the region’s cricket, football and basketball scenes, his love of sport began where so many do — on the field as a proud player, unbeknown to him what the future would hold. Now a sporting veteran of nearly 30 years, he started out as a young boy in Boyanup playing “any sport I could” from cricket to water polo. He said he was brought into the sporting world by his family, particularly on his dad’s side, all of whom were sports fanatics — his dad and grandfather both life members of the Eaton Boomers Football Club. “My family’s always been big into sports, especially on my dad’s side,” he said. “My pop was probably one of the people that started a lot of sports out in the Boyanup-Stratham area. “He was heavily involved in tennis clubs out there, the footy club, the hockey club, he was both captaining and coaching those teams. “Sport has always been part of what we do, even from a young age I’ve always loved sport, watching, whatever I could.” Playing every sport under the sun, under the leadership of coach dad, his father’s guidance saw him fall quite naturally into coaching roles, following in the family footsteps. “My dad coached me and my brother pretty much every year,” he said. “He started when I was eight or nine for a couple of years, then came back again when I was a teen and coached my brother every year, all the way through. “As I got older I used to help my dad out with my brother’s teams and it progressed to me taking over when dad went away until I eventually started coaching teams myself — all the while still playing myself, and we’re still playing today.” His natural born leadership combined with his love of sports inspired him to become a physical education teacher — taking up a post in Kalgoorlie after graduating from university, immediately getting stuck in to as many sporting clubs as he could. “I went out there in ‘97 and was straight into the sport on committees up there and helping run the sport at the school I was teaching at,” he said. “I was heavily involved, coaching footy and cricket ... even coaching senior football reserves in ‘99 and 2000 at Railways Football Club. “I was on the committee out there too which was probably my first senior club role, and I was on the junior footy committee as well.” Returning to Bunbury in 2001, he turned his attention to committee and coaching roles — continuing his passion for teaching as a PE teacher firstly at Bunbury Catholic College and then at Bunbury Cathedral Grammar School where he remains today. A life member of both the Bunbury and Districts Cricket Association and Hay Park Cricket Club, Jason has proven his dedication to the cricket community as both a senior and junior committee member with the BDCA since 2003 which included a stint as president between 2007 and 2009, while also taking on various committee role with HPCC including treasurer, registrar and president. Externally, Jason has also helped coordinate the cricket country week carnivals since 2011, playing in 24 senior carnivals himself and recently playing his 100th county week game. When he is not taking to the pitch, he spends his time between the sticks, serving on the Bunbury Junior Football Council, South West Regional Development Committee and Bunbury Football Club committee since 2007. He has also coached his own sons’ football teams since 2013. In 2022, he took up a role of executive member with the South West Football League, being the liaison between the SWFL and SW Junior Football League, where he has also worked as competition coordinator for 13 years. But his service doesn’t stop there, working tirelessly as fixtures coordinator for the Bunbury Basketball Association since 2015 and on the Junior Division Committee since 2006. Outside of the committee he has also been coaching school basketball teams since 2005. But above all, he said his favourite part of the job was seeing junior athletes progress over the years. “You’ve got to try and get the best out of all kids,” he said. “Being a coach teaches you to know how to get the best out of every kid ... the best ones, you need to give them enough encouragement to be good, but you also need to give the kids that might be struggling enough encouragement and opportunities so they want to keep playing. “You don’t know if down the track, that weakest player might end up on the committee themselves one day or going into umpiring or something because they love the sport. “They might not necessarily be the best at playing but they might be really good otherwise and if you lose them from the game, you don’t get them for any other roles.” With nearly three decades spent dedicating time to community sport, he said it’s the people — players, parents and club staff — that have made it worthwhile. “I just enjoy working with kids,” he said. “I do love seeing them get the joy of playing — seeing different kids coming together, especially at something like footy where you get kids from all different schools and lives coming and playing and developing and giving them opportunities. “It’s great seeing someone years down the track who has gone on to do amazing things and talking about what they’ve achieved, because it feels like your success too, at least a small part of it.” “But even everyone else I’ve met along the way ... I’ve worked work with some outstanding people across the board. “They are all just such great people who all want to make that positive change and keeping the game going forward.” Able to fill an entire library with his services to local sport, Mr Reid was recently awarded the Optus Volunteer Service to Sport Award at the Bunbury Geographe Sports Star of the Year Awards for his outstanding voluntary service to the sporting community. An incredibly humble recipient, he expressed his thanks to the community for their kind words. “It’s amazing, since (the award ceremony) the amount of people that have come and said, ‘congratulations, well deserved’,” he said. “It’s really humbling, because you don’t do it for those things — yes, it’s lovely to get recognised but you do it to make the sport better.”