As president, she could assume executive tweeting power, but New West’s Jennifer Domville is more into collaboration.
Having done nearly every volunteer position outside of coaching with the Royal City Hyacks Football Club, Domville knows the importance of having a steady hand on the tiller.
The club executive elected her its new president last week, taking over from Greg Palmer.
The club has benefited from good leadership over the years, and when tapped by club founder and high school coach Farhan Lalji to throw her hat in the ring, Domville did.
“I’m comfortable enough knowing that I can learn as I go. I’m someone who has no problem asking for guidance if I need it,” she said.
She has already served on the executive and as the club manager for a number of seasons.
The Hyacks program fielded three teams plus a couple of flag entries in fall ball, and a full slate of flag teams for spring football. They already have a wait list for this year’s spring flag teams.
Getting those spring numbers to transition into growth at the fall’s tackle season is one goal.
Football is a family event, she noted, and that is the key engine that keeps it running smoothly at the community level, too.
Her son Jackson is entering his final junior bantam season, while husband Greg was elected the youth vice-president.
Lalji said Domville has the interests of the kids at heart and is a good fit for the role.
“She’s been around the club for a number of years and done a lot of the volunteer positions,” he noted. “Jennifer has a real passion for making things better.”
She intends to bring back the Hyack Huddle, an event the club use to do to instill important lessons to the young players on such topics as leadership, bullying and sportsmanship.
“These are topics I really feel need to be reiterated over and over again to our youth, especially in this day and age. This is definitely something I’m going to bring back,” she said.
Lalji also noted the club is promoting the idea of having tackling introduced at 10 years of age, as opposed to the current eight-years old. But that discussion will continue at the provincial level.
Ensuring that the local game is a fun, inviting place for kids to learn valuable lessons will continue to be the focus, she noted.
“I am all about people, so I’m not going to change the fact that I find it is the families and the volunteers and people at the helm that are going to continue be the success of our club.”
