By Derek Schlennstedt
The Cockatoo Little Athletics club is hoping to gain more members now that construction has finished on their club.
Cockatoo Little Athletics president Russell Butler said the club needs support now more than ever.
He said the construction undertaken on the club has left them with fantastic facilities, but the club lost more than half of its members while they were closed.
“We went from around 130 to 46,” he said
“We were supposed to lose the track for one season, but only got it handed back on 9 December and so we only had one week on the track then we broke up for Christmas and came back for February, march.”“It basically killed us.”
The club has new facilities now and cater to all running events, as well as shot put, javelin, discus, and triple jump and long jump events.
Mr Butler said the work needed to rectify poor drainage on the oval.
“The biggest problem we used to suffer was no drainage, and coming out of spring it’d be so wet we couldn’t use the full 40m track until December.”
“The track now is absolutely awesome. We got a big downpour on Saturday, but we were straight back on the track and able to use it.”
He said the little athletics club worked hard to create a family-like environment.“We might not have the most expensive track in Victoria, but we have the most beautiful surroundings,” he said.
“We’re a very relaxed family club and we like to have parents in the infield supporting their children and involve everyone.”
