This page is for supporters of Sturt Lions Football Club. Opinions expressed by users and admins are only that and dont represent those of the club.
[DISCLAIMER] This FAN page is for and used by SUPPORTERS of Sturt Lions Football Club. Opinions expressed by users of this page are only that, and do not necessarily reflect the thoughts and opinions of club officials, members or players. Misuse of the page by users may result in a permanent ban.
The history of Sturt Lions has its current foundation based upon three junior teams that were established at Karinya Reserve in 2003 and played as Adelaide Hills Hawks teams in a red and white Ajax Amsterdam strip following many of the football philosophies of that Dutch club. These teams were under 11s coached by John Vander Veeken and Mike Degenhart, under 12s coached by John Hood and an under 13 team coached by Jim Phillips and Peter Quinn. This group continued to grow yearly and was significantly influenced by Raymond Blair who joined the coaching group in 2005
In 2008 this Karinya based junior group had grown to 7 teams covering under 10s through to under 16s and changed its senior link to Sturt Marion Thunder including its colours to the current orange and blue.
Now in 2011 this Karinya based group has entered its own senior teams in the Football Federation of SA State League with another name update to the Sturt Lions Football Club. This inaugural senior team is coached by playing coaches Alan Paice and Mark Donk.
Interwoven within this club fabric are the romantic threads of three past Federation clubs. The orange and the Dutch lion within the current club logo represents the Orange Soccer Club, a club consisting of mainly Dutch migrants that started in 1954. The blue within the current players strip represents the Sturt Soccer Club, a club that commenced in 1907 within the Mitcham Council area. 1963 saw the amalgamation of these two clubs into the Orange Sturt Soccer Club that played within the Mitcham Council area with that clubs' final season in 1983. The third thread is the Blackwood Soccer Club which commenced in 1977 in the amateur league rising to the top Football Federation league in 1990 then closing at the end of 1991. Significantly, Blackwood developed Karinya Reserve into a football field for the local area under the leadership of then local businessman Alan Charman.
There are family threads across these former clubs within the Sturt Lions with many junior and senior players that have fathers and grandfathers that represented Sturt, Orange, Orange Sturt and Blackwood.
As recognition of these threads into the new club, Sturt Lions, there is the annual Bep DeVries Award for the most progressive junior player within the senior teams. Bep DeVries is the son of a Dutch migrant who played senior football for both Orange Sturt and Blackwood. He is fabled within Orange Sturt history for being only 15 and regularly after playing in the under 18 and reserve teams would come off the senior team bench and play in his third game on the same day. This award reflects the aims of Sturt Lions to provide football opportunities for young players.
- Category:
- Amateur sports team