Soccer standards set high
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BRISBANE, Australia — With a foundation of LDS players, the Fireside United Football Club is a dominating force in its league.
The Queensland Christian Soccer Association (QCSA) is a Brisbane and Sunshine Coast-based league that provides its players quality competition without compromising Sabbath-day worship.
Terry Brown of the Somerset Ward, Ipswich Australia Stake, established the club in 2000 and the team promptly went out and won the Division 3 championship. It repeated that feat in the recently completed 2005 season. That followed its clinching of the pre-season "Referee's Shield."
To add to the year's success, the club's Division 5 and 7 teams made it to their respective semifinals. Achileas Kostiglou of River Terrace Ward, Brisbane Australia Stake, became the club's fourth player to win the league's "Player of the Year" award after scoring 25 goals for the season.
Club committee members Ystyn Francis, Nathanael Green, Nick Osbaldiston, Brenden Harris and Daniel Swann — members of the Brisbane and Eight Mile Plains stakes — regularly evaluate what the club offers so the players feel they are part of something different and special. On and off the field, players who are members have found themselves in an excellent position to perform missionary work and set a positive example for those around them.
On the Fireside United roster of approximately 50 — including stake presidents, bishops, and returned missionaries — 10 players are friends of the Church willing to adhere to the club's specific guidelines, which include prayer before matches and use of appropriate language. Of those 10, Darin Watts was one of three players voted by teammates to receive the club's "Players' Player" award for being the best and fairest on the team.
Next year, the club is hoping to introduce an over-35s team (to compete on Friday nights) as well as its first youth and women's teams.
