AT Banyule City Soccer Club, Jim Sampson is almost as much of a fixture as the medals or the maroon uniform.
The Macleod resident has been a devoted member for more than 40 years; indeed, the 76-year-old is still the club manager. During the soccer season he’s on hand to help prepare the senior sides for their weekday training sessions and Saturday games. His weekly routine involves washing the players’ shirts, organising soccer balls for training sessions, preparing drinks and food and ensuring the ground is ready for Saturday matches.
Sampson joined the club when it was in its infancy in 1971 after he migrated from the UK with wife, Patricia, and son, Jim jnr.
A merchant navy seaman, Sampson had kept up with the sport during his seafaring days travelling around the world. At every port he would play against local sides as part of the ship’s team.
He quit the navy when he was in his mid-30s, after his son was born, and decided to move his young family from Portsmouth to Melbourne. A month after the family arrived, he was staying in a hostel for migrants when he heard about a local soccer club – then the Rosanna Soccer Club – and signed up.
When his playing days were behind him, Sampson began coaching Jim jnr’s team.
The Sampson family legacy at the club stretches for three generations. Jim jnr started playing at 11. He went on to play for the seniors sides and veterans until he was in his late 40s. He still coaches at the club.
Jim’s three grandsons – aged 16, 21 and 22 – all played for the club and also coach. Even Patricia is a life member of the club.
‘‘It’s not just the men involved,’’ Sampson says. ‘‘It has been a family club since it was formed.’’
When asked about his family’s love of the sport, he says: ‘‘I think it keeps us together.’’
Sampson says that when he migrated, it was hard to get support for soccer clubs in footy-mad and cricket-loving Melbourne.
‘‘Soccer was a strange sport in Australia in those days,’’ he laughs.
Since then, Sampson says he has seen an explosion in the game’s popularity in suburban Melbourne.
‘‘It is just growing in leaps and bounds,’’ he says. ‘‘Everywhere you go you see goal posts.’’
Banyule City Soccer Club has 22 junior teams, girls’ teams, under-18s, seniors, reserves, and veterans sides. The club also has a growing women’s team list as more and more girls begin to play soccer. As the club has grown, it has been forced to expand across two separate grounds in Yallambie and in Banyule Flats. The club is lobbying the council to fund improved facilities including floodlights and a synthetic soccer pitch – estimated to cost more than $1 million.
Sampson says he has no intention of retiring from the club.
‘‘It is a great pastime for me. It keeps me busy. It keeps me young,’’ he says, with a chuckle. ‘‘If you can call me young.’’
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