Humbled by community service award

Phil Rayner our club president was awarded a Rotary International Community Service Award from Rotary Club of Umina Beach for his Service to Umina United Soccer Club. Phil has been involved with the club since 1983 as a junior player and 41 years later his service continues. Congratulations Phil on your humble, dedicated service and hard work, you deserve the recognition.

Nomination for Rotary Club Community Service Award 2024

Service Award Nominee – Phil Rayner of Umina Beach

Phil has dedicated his life to the Umina United Soccer Club. Phil is being nominated for his Community Service to Umina United Soccer Club which he has been involved with since 1983 as a junior player and 41 years later his service continues. Phil is currently in his 5^th year as club president.

Phil is the humblest of leaders and is normally the one giving out awards, working away behind the scenes with a crew of hard-working volunteers. In his tenure, he has guided the club back to one of the strongest family football clubs on the Central Coast. Phil along with another Life Member Lee Fulwood restructured the committee roles to enable the club to grow in a more sustainable way.

The club is now the 4^th largest on the Central Coast and can proudly boast a growth in membership over the last four years as shown here:

Phil is supported by his wife Kylie and two children Ebony and Archie.

Phil started his service as a junior player at the club when he was 11 years old. He played in 1983 for the U11A team and he has continued to either play and /or coach from that year to today where he plays in the Over 45’s, coaches the women’s All Age Team and is also the President.

In his 40 years of service, he has held the following positions:
1988 – Central Coast U18 rep team – Played in the Central Coast Rep Team from U14-U18
1989 – U17 and made his 1^st grade debut.
1996 – Central Coast Senior rep team
1998-2000 – Player MAA1
2001-2005 – Player MAA2
2001 – Umina United Vice President
2012-2013 – Player M35C
2018/2019 – Football Chairman
2023-2024 – Player 45B
2020-2024 – President

As a Coach

1995 – Women’s All Age team
2017 – U11B – boys team
2018 – U12B – boys team
2019 – U13A – boys team
2020 – U14A – boys team
2021 – U15A – boys team
2022 – U16A – boys team
2017-2018 Men’s Premier League 1^st Grade Manager
2019 – Men’s Premier League 1^st Assistant Coach
2024 – WAA

Awards within the club

1992 – 10-year service award
2002 – 20-year service award
2002 – Life Membership
2011 – 30-year service award
2022 – 40-year service award (awarded this year due to COVID)
1989 – U17 League Champions and Premiers
2015 – 35B Premiers
2017 – 35B League Champions and Premiers
2019 – 45B Premiers

In 2002 Phil was awarded the very distinguished Life Membership Award. In 2018 Phil was awarded junior coach of the year. He has also won many premierships as a coach and player and so many finals series it’s too much to list.

Club Highlights:

Some of the highlights that can be attributed to Phil’s dedication to the Umina United Soccer Club range from what you would think to be a very simple and easy to the more difficult and complex.

With the growth of the club, the need to accommodate more teams on the Umina Oval (Col Cooley) for training days was evident. The club has had the approval to train on Tuesdays and Thursdays for many years and the simple request to have access to the oval on a Wednesday was sought. This was made possible with his hard work and tenacious relationship with the powers that be at Central Coast Council.

Part of this growth period has seen our junior teams grow enormously – so much so that during the rebuild of our new club we had to move training and games to McEvoy Oval – This was a huge task as all canteen equipment, uniforms, training equipment, containers for storage all had to be relocated to McEvoy.

A significant milestone was the replacement of the 40-year-old toilet and changing rooms at Umina Oval. These facilities were so outdated and rundown it was an embarrassment to the club to host teams from other areas due to the conditions. There were no female specific change areas and the plumbing continuously backed up which caused a stink (pun).

Phil worked with a core group of committee members for 2-3 years to engage with Central Coast Council and the Liberal Government (at the time) that had made an election promise to rebuild the facilities with funding and help. This was a difficult time for the club with 2 seasons of disruption to our normal fields and facilities – with games being played at McEvoy and Umina Ovals. The new club house was completed and ready for the club in July 2023. The new club house is an incredible addition to the soccer club and enables the club to accommodate the growing community of Umina beach – the new club has 4 change rooms, a club room, big canteen, referees’ room, storage facilities, public toilets, and a fresh start for the club.

One of Phil’s biggest wins is the growth of women’s football within the club… long before the “Matildas” effect Phil has been working to engage more girls and women to participate in football. Over the past four years this growth has culminated in the club being able to field girls’ teams in all competitive age groups – this means girls can play alongside and against other girls in women only competition. This season the club can boast girls only teams in U7, U8, U9, U10 alongside our WU12, WU14, WU16, WU18s and senior grade teams. We have a highly successful women’s first and reserve grade teams who have recently won the minor and major premierships. And, a number of Women’s All Age teams – this shows the growth of the sport in our community especially for women who want to play and join a team.

The club would like to gratefully thank Phil for more than 40 years of dedication and service to the Umina United Soccer club. We also wish to thank the Umina Rotary Club for this opportunity to nominate and recognise Phil for his service and provide us with the right forum for this recognition.