2024 Geraldton Guardian Mid West Sport Awards: Game changer David Crothers on sport as community backbone

David Crothers has seen a fair deal of sport during his time in Geraldton. From playing hockey as a kid to building Geraldton’s hockey precinct, Mr Crothers has just about done it all. He has played a major role in sport in the Mid West, making him in his own right a “game changer”, which is the theme for this year’s Geraldton Guardian Mid West Sports Awards. Crothers grew up playing hockey as a kid, attending the Rec where hockey was played on a Saturday and football was on a Sunday. His deep love of hockey carried through his time as a junior at Rovers, the club where he played the majority of his hockey. After moving to Perth for his studies, Crothers returned to, in his eyes, a fragmented hockey association. At the time, hockey in Geraldton was broken up into three separate associations — juniors, men’s and women’s. Crothers saw this problem, got involved and was one of the driving forces behind the amalgamation of the three associations into one. President of the Geraldton Hockey Association for 22 years, Crothers was a trailblazer in the hockey world, especially in the regions. Australia welcomed its first artificial turf in 1979 at Curtin University in Perth and only a few years later, Crothers pushed for Geraldton to be selected to have its own turf. Building Geraldton’s first artificial turf in the early 80’s, Crothers was a large factor behind growth of the sport in general in the regions. He now looks over the hockey scene in Geraldton as a board member of the association and says the sport is in a healthy place. “Hockey in Geraldton is certainly in a very healthy state,” he said. “Numbers have continued to grow in term of players and that is vital in the sport doing well in the future.” Crothers said the importance of sport in the Mid West was vital to the community. “Sport in the country is the backbone of the community,” he said. “It serves as a place for recreation and socialisation for all involved.” Fitting the bill of a game changer, Crothers is also a life member at Rovers Hockey Club, recipient of the inaugural administrator of the year awards at the Mid West Sports Awards in 1985 and the only regional life member at Hockey WA. His construction business is also a sponsor of the local awards. The 52nd Geraldton Guardian Mid West Sports Awards will be held on Saturday, November 30. For tickets, go to https://events.humanitix.com/geraldton-guardian-mid-west-sports-awards