Darrel Smith has continued his successful year on and off the soccer field, after being named the Newcastle Permanent Community Coach of the Year.
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Smith was named Coach of the Month back in August, and has now backed that up, being recognised for his efforts throughout the year.
"Obviously at the end of the year, we have an opportunity to look at everyone that was nominated over the year and we selected Darrel based on his tireless efforts in the community," Northern Inland Football (NIF) general manager Julia Farina said.
"Not just, obviously with the Moree Services but the Namoi competition, the youth in the region and football as a sport. It's huge."
Smith also attended Football Federation Australia (FFA) workshops earlier in the year where he spoke with chief executive David Gallop about Indigenous representation in football.
"Northern Inland Football along with Northern NSW Football has put forward Darrel to be on an Indigenous standing committee so we're waiting to hear back," Farina said.
"That's for FFA, so that's a top standing committee to represent the Indigenous community for football so we're quite excited and we hope that he's successful in that."
Smith has been coaching in Moree since 2004, and has now been recognised by Newcastle Permanent who have been handing out this award for a number of years.
"It's a big part of our game, making sure that the people that support it and the community, that spend tireless hours getting teams ready, coaching the teams, turning up on a Saturday, running canteens are all recognised because without them we wouldn't have a game," Farina said.
In addition to his work at the Moree Services Football Club, Smith was helped Northern Nations FC to a win at the National Indigenous Football Championships.
He was very grateful receiving the award and he is looking forward to more "ongoing support that comes with it."
"It gives us an ability to talk with Julia and Northern Inland as well about needs of the community and how that can be better supported to run coaching, especially now with the interest in the women that are trying to get that furthered," Smith said.
"It's about being able to access support to be able to run coaching clinics.
"We're talking about coaching development, looking at getting C-licences, or even licences for juniors for everyone from who wants to take juniors, parents that want to coach juniors through to getting people having qualified licences for senior teams as well."
Farina said that Smith has been a great role model for the Moree community as well as the Namoi League and NIF zone.
"We're very lucky to have him and we hope that the FFA, in starting to increase their awareness of Indigenous communities, that Darrel is also a part of that," she said.
"That's our next growth area for FFA and for football is getting the Indigenous community involved," Smith added.
"And we need to have a seat at the table to be able to make sure that it's done in the right way."
