Chris has been a long-standing member of our club and committee. He first joined the Club at the start of the 2008-09 season, when his older son Sullivan (Sully as he was better known) commenced Little Athletics in U6s. Chris then joined the committee the following year as a General Committee member and as our First Aid Officer. The next year his younger son Jules also joined the Club. While the boys left the club for a few years (2013-2016), we were delighted to see Jules come back in 2016-17, which also brought Chris back to the club and on to the committee again.

In total, Chris was on the committee for 7 years, but whilst not serving on the Club’s Executive, Chris has made some key and long-standing contributions that have gone a very long way to building the club spirit and ensuring that Corroboree’s Little Athletics program is at its heart fun! So much so he is very much our Chief Cheerleader and as he describes himself, the Club’s Minister of Fun.

Specifically, Chris’ key achievements have included

• the reshaping of the On-Track Program for Under 6 to Under 9 athletes. The On-track program has always been an exceptionally important part of Little Athletics where the younger athletes were taught the basic skills of running, jumping and throwing. However, Little Athletics Australia had recognised that the program was a little too technical in its delivery. In reshaping this program, Chris showed tremendous initiative, effort and creativity. He brought great knowledge and understanding of coaching and undertook a lot of research to ensure the program worked.
• Chris demonstrated a remarkable ability to engage with the children and their parents to have everyone involved and committed. The results of his efforts meant that the athletes still developed the core skills but in effect did so in a highly fun and non-competitive environment and in most cases did not know they had acquired these skills
• Chris also showcased the On-Track program at our Come and Try days which no doubt helped contribute to our ongoing growth in member numbers
• One particular example of his creativity and efforts to make On-Track so much fun was on one of the hottest meet we have had, Chris developed and brought along a misting machine to provide some cooling (we seem to recall quite a few of the older athletes and parents taking advantage of his creativity that day as well).
• The On-Track Program, under Chris’ direction, became very highly regarded by athletes and parents, and as a result of this and his general contribution to the Club, Chris received the John Hunt Award in 2010.
• Chris was also very instrumental in designing great obstacle courses for the Christmas parties and his great sense of fun has also been demonstrated by his fantastic costumes. He featured as a Christmas Elf on quite a few occasions, but his most well-known character is that of “Captain Corroboree”. The Captain has made regular appearances to our Meets and in 2016-17, the Captain also featured in the mascot race at the Little Athletics ACT Championships.
• Chris also developed the Club chant, which to this day remains the prelude to every Saturday athletics meet and will be just another legacy to his time with the Club. Chris also provides loud and enthusiastic support to all the athletes during carnivals, as he got the Corroboree team cheering-on all the Corroboree competitors on the track. You can hear his whistle all the way around the oval!
• In 2016-2017, Little Athletics National Sponsor Jetstar held a photo competition, called the Orange Round. Chris again showed great initiative and creativity, as he designed (together with Jules) a large orange Jetstar banner. He came to the meet, once again dressed-up, together with his sister-in-law (another Corroboree parent) as the characters “Jet” and “Star”. He then organised the Club’s photos, and principally because of his efforts, Corroboree won the competition resulting in a $3,000 prize which allowed us to finance the badly needed fourth long jump run-up.

Over his many years with Corroboree, Chris has contributed in many other ways. As a physiotherapist, he has been for many years our First Aid Officer, and he has also been seen timing races or acting as an age group coordinator.

After the 2018-19 season Chris stepped down from the Club’s committee, but continued to be actively involved being on the sub-committee for the organisation of the 50^th Anniversary celebrations. As part of this role, Chris put great time and effort into his research that ultimately led to him identifying and finding the founders of the club. Chris then met with one of our founders, Joyce Boyson, and organised for her to visit the club for the 50^th anniversary celebrations. Chris, once again, also looked after the fun aspect of the celebration, as he came up with the idea of the inflatable obstacle course, which he subsequently organised.

Chris is the ultimate team member, he is always very positive and constructive and completely dependable. As such, his opinion was highly valued by the entire Club and his positive legacy will be long standing. As a result of his contribution to the ongoing success and growth of our Club, it is with great pleasure that we, on behalf of the Committee, announce Chris Bacchus as a recipient of Life Membership of Corroboree (North Canberra) Little Athletics.