Colleges United is a community based soccer club, originally founded in 1995 with 76 players, to cater for children from 5 to 18 years of age.The club has grown significantly and now caters for juniors, women and men of all ages. Our home ground is the Mt Crosby Sportsground on Allawah Road, Mt Crosby, in the western suburbs of Brisbane, Queensland, Australia.
The club has now committed to a five year lease of the Mt Crosby Sportsground, and looks forward to developing the facilities further to assist the youth of the local area. The Colleges Little Athletics Centre and Mt Crosby Cricket Club also use the grounds during the summer months, and with a commitment from the Brisbane City Council to further develop the facilities for general use, the future for the Mt Crosby Sportsground should see some great improvements for both the club and the local community.
We are affiliated with Football Brisbane Incorporated (FBI), and follow the international soccer rules of FIFA (Federation of International Football Association). Girls and boys play in mixed teams, with equal time on the field for all players, regardless of skill level. There are no best and fairest awards with all children receiving a trophy on Presentation Day. There are no points tables until Under 11. The idea is to participate, have fun, get some exercise, improve skills and make some new friends.
Colleges United plays an important community role and at all times, encourages equal playing time for all children regardless of gender or ability. Our emphasis is on participation, fair play, skills enhancement and the personal enjoyment to be gained from playing a team sport.
Our Club encourages a lot of social activity and has the facilities for groups to use our ground for team and social events. Team photo day and trophy day are two annual events for all members and players to enjoy. As a non-profit volunteer organisation, we rely on the invaluable assistance of our parents to assist with the coaching and managing of teams, and the on-going maintenance of our facilities.
In 1998 Colleges United was awarded the inaugural 'Fair Play Shield' for the least number of red and yellow cards by the BSDJSA from 32 participating clubs.
In 1999, Colleges United were again the proud recipients of 'Fair Play Shield' for the least number of red and yellow cards by the BSDJSA.
In the 2000 season, the Colleges United Under 11 Division 3 team were Premiers, Grand Final Champions and Brisbane Association Champions! Both the Grand Final and the District Championship were firsts for the Club in its short history.
In 2001 as Under 12's, the Premiership winning Under 11 team in 2000, were once again Premiers, and narrowly missed out winning the Grand Final.
Colleges United was awarded the BSDJSA Champion Club Award due to the success of our Under 12 Premiers and Under 11 Grand Finalists in 2001.
In 2002 Colleges United fielded four divisional teams: -
- Under 11 Div 3
- Under 11 Div 7
- Under 12 Div 2
- Under 15 Div 4.
All four teams made it to the finals, with the Under 11 Div 7 team narrowly defeated in the semi finals, and all other teams making it through to the Grand Finals. The Under 12 Div 2 team was declared joint winners in their final.
In 2003 Colleges United fielded six divisional teams: -
- Under 11 Div 4
- Under 11 Div 8
- Under 12 Div 3
- Under 13 Div 6
- Under 14 Div 4
- Under 17 Div 2.
In 2004 Colleges United became affiliated with Brisbane Womens Soccer (BWS) and ran our first womens team in the senior competition.
In 2005 the Colleges United womens team founded in 2004 won the Premiership and the Grand Final under the guidance of Keith 'the Koach' Hardisty.
The end of 2005 saw the club celebrate it's tenth year anniversay with a dinner of old and new members. The night proved to be a very memorable night despite the fact we missed Keith Hardisty's rendition of Danish folk dancing, where we celebrated the achievements of what is still a relatively new club with a great future.
In 2005, our Club won the 'Fair Play Shield' for the least number of red and yellow cards by the BSDJSA for an unprecedented third time.
In
2006
the club appointed David Burgener as the new Director of Coaching.
In 2007 David Burgener stepped down from his role as Colleges United's Director of Coaching.
The 2007 season also saw the formation of Colleges United's first open mens team consisting of many players who originated from the club as juniors in the 90's. In 2007 the men's team played in the Commercial League.
In 2007 the number of registered players grew to 270.
In 2009 Colleges United have already seen many changes.
The club successfully negotiated a 3 year jersey sponsorship deal with two local businesses, Health Matters Karalee and United Financial Services. This sponsorship has significantly contributed to the cost of new playing jeresys this year for many of the junior teams and all four senior teams.
This year will also see a major upgrade to the club's flood lights made possible by a grant of almost $55,000 from the Department of Sport and Recreation. Colleges United will invest an additional $35,000 to fund the project.
In February 2009, Barry Guyett was appointed as the club's new Director of Coaching (DoC).
The new Small Sided Football (SSF) format introduced for Under 6,7 & 8 player's in 2008 was extended to include Under 9 players this year.
The senior Women expanded to two full teams in 2009 and a move across to the Queensland Christian Soccer Association (QCSA) league.
After a very successful inugural season in 2008 the men's Over 35 team have been promoted this year to Division 1 in the QCSA league and also stepped up an age group to take on the Over 30's.
The year 2010 saw the extension of Small Sided Football (SSF) to the under 10 age group. We had 4 x u6, 6 x u7, 3 x u8, 4 x u9 and 1 x u10 teams playing SSF. Divisional teams were u11 Div 1 and 4, u12 Div 7 and Wst, u14 Div 2 and 5, u15 Div 4 and u17 Div 1 Church League. We also had 2 x womens teams and 1 o/30's mens team with the Church League and one men's team in the Commercial League Friday div 2. During the season we held one carnival on 18 July for the u6 & 7 age groups. We also had the services of Barry Guyet as our DoC. Committee members were; Adrian Wellington (Pres), Clayton Mortell (VP), Jenine Mortell (Sec), Eddie Cassidy (Treas) and John Tank and David Berlin as committee members. The season ended with a trophy presentation day on 29 August but there were still 4 junior teams in the finals to be played on 4 September; u11d1, u11d4, 12west and u14d5. The under 11 div 1 and under 12 West teams played their grand finals on 11 September at QLD Lions main field in front of a packed crowd. Both teams gave their all and went down fighting to the end making all parents and supporters proud.
This year also saw the completion of bitumen surfacing being applied the length of the access road and the fields being aerated. The club also took possession of a tractor slasher courtesy of a grant from the Gambling Community Benefit Fund and updated most equipment for the betterment of players.