Valarie joined our club in 2002. Valarie has been a dedicated club member over the past 20 years.

We make it tough to receive Life Membership, you have to earn it and Valarie certainly has. Valarie has been a huge part of BSNC for many years taking on many of the larger roles The criteria is at least 12 years of service and 600 points.

I’ll start with the roles you receive points for to be awarded a life membership.

You accrue 40 points for being a coach. Valarie has coached – 12 teams, sometimes 2 teams in the same season!! Valarie always arrived early to training to help set up, pump up balls and make sure eveything was ready to go. In 2004 she coached A2s. Valarie has coached the C2s five times with her 2014 team making it to the Grand Final, but unfortunately no shield. C2s is a tough grade to coach as during Valarie’s time we were low in numbers so Valarie would often have to work tirelessly to find players come Saturday morning. Valarie has helped our younger generation with valuable netball skills coaching every junior grade J1, J2, J3s a few times, J4 and she has even coached the other end of the spectrum, Masters in 2010! In 2017 Valarie accepted the position of Junior Coordinator and did a wonderful job keeping out Junior community running smoothly.

You receive 10 points for being on the committee. Valarie joined our committee in 2014 and committed her time to the club for 8 years and encouraged her daughter Madison to join last year also. Valarie attended all meetings and always volunteered to do anything, she is very reliable.

You get 50 points for being a player. Valarie has played 172 games for our club. Mainly in GS and sometimes came out for a run at GA. Valarie is well known for her shooting with extreme accuracy from long range. Valarie was a tough player and although struggled with injury she would still play and be a great example for her team.

So, that’s the points that earnt Valarie Life Membership BUT Valarie’s tireless commitment to the modest roles contributes to making her a wonderful asset to our club. She has continuously helped the Cats in many ways over the past 20 years. Let’s take a look at everything else Valarie does!

We did a search on Valarie on our netball faceobok page and these are Valarie’s comments to people seeking help

'I will do it for you’

‘I can do something for you on Sunday’

‘I will put my hand up if desperate’

‘I will be around if needed’

‘I can do something for you just let me know’

‘I can do a duty after my match’ (Prelim match!)

‘I can do timer if you like’

‘I can do something just let me know’

‘I will drop off food tomorrow’

‘We will be there, and we have an electric knife as well as anything else required’

All these comments are frequent from Valarie over the past years. Anytime that something needed to be done for the club Valarie is the first one to put up her hand.

Valarie can do anything! She umpires on Saturdays, she umpires at country champ and academy trials, she umpires at junior carnivals, she mentors young umpires, attend workshops or trials to ensure the club does not get fined. Valarie was a frequent selector for country champs and academy also.

Valarie offers to help all the time for scoring & timing duties, even at the last minute. Every single final our club has hosted, Valarie and Madison put their hand up to help with the massive list of duties.

Valarie can cook! She donates food wherever possible and participates in fundraisers. Valarie and her family have been a huge help at the Blyth Netball Courts over the years. Always attending busy bees and helping during big improvements, such as the equipment shed and cleaning up the courts, clubrooms and amenities.

Valarie does a lot in a quiet modest way and was awarded Blyth Snowtown Netball Club volunteer of the year in 2017.

This year after 8 years on the committee Valarie has had a break from netball life, however she doesn’t get away with it that easily. It’s great to see her here tonight and we’d like to congratulate Valarie Ciardello for being Blyth Snowtown Netball Clubs 10th Life Member

Tonight, in Valaries 21st year with our netball club we induct her into the elite group of Life Members.