At the recent MWFA Annual General Meeting, Jeff Smit was awarded Life Membership for his services to football in the Manly Warringah area.
Jeff Smit has played, coached, managed, refereed, sponsored and been on the committee of either a local soccer club or the MWFA for the past 30 years.
He started playing for Curl Curl in the Under 6s and continued to play with them for 17 years. He played senior football with Cromer, Collaroy Plateau and one year with Long Reef. He also played in the premier league division for Pittwater, Wakehurst and St. Augustines.
Jeff moved to the Central Coast in 1989 where he joined Killarney District Soccer Club. He played in their senior team and his sons started playing in the Under 5s competition. He coached one of their teams each year and joined the committee and was the Senior President. He also ran the canteen and was on field set up most Sundays.
On his return to Sydney in 1998 Jeff settled in Frenchs Forest, near Lionel Watts reserve, hence Wakehurst became his new club. It didn’t take long before he was running the Hews Parade Canteen and then the Bantry Bay Road canteen.
Jeff coached or managed one or two of his children each season. He played goalkeeper for the Premier League and he was also on the Wakehurst committee, and assisted with all the grading days and team allocations.
His sons went to St. Augustines. Again, he took on canteen duties and ran the Grahams canteen for several years. Jeff was St. Augustines Registrar for a few years (until the school took over the role), he also assisted with the gradings, team allocations and coached a team for a number of years.
Jeff also started refereeing when he became a Cadet Referee at 14 years old, a branch entrant at 16 and then onward to complete his Level 2 certificate and referee all grades including Premier League.
In 2006 Jeff became Vice President of MWFA and held that position until he became President in 2015, a position he held for 5 years.
Jeff has also served as a Member of the Manly United, Manly Warringah District Soccer Football Club Boards as well as numerous committees both with MWFA and Football NSW through his position.
In 2019, as a Committee Member of the Manly Warringah District Soccer Football Club, Jeff became the major driver in the re-development of the Cromer Park Clubhouse facility, which came to fruition with its re-opening in October 2021.
A long standing, dedicated member of the football family of Manly Warringah over many years, Jeff Smit is undeniably deserving of life membership.
