Stephen put himself up for the role of club president at the end of 2018. He’s been associated with the club since early 2016. His Football
crazy son, Charley 8, has been mastering his ball and team skills in the beautiful game since U6. During this time, Stephen has supported
the club as an assistant coach, team manager and more recently, assisting with tasks at Committee level. He saw the Club Presidency role
as a great opportunity to further develop his leadership skills and work with an awesome team of people steering a local, community
football club.
By day, Stephen is an IT Professional and works as a Senior Project Manager at Financial Services company in Melbourne CBD. He has 25 years of experience in project and software delivery. He’s worked with a multitude of banks and financial services companies from London, England to Melbourne, Australia. He has a passion for delivering value, quality and positive outcomes to business partners and stakeholders. Stephen has a firm belief that teamwork is a key to success.
In his spare time, Stephen likes to keep himself active and busy. You might find him anywhere from AAMI Park watching Melbourne City FC, at the gym trying to stave off the mid life Ibs, at home playing his acoustic guitars or off somewhere exploring the Great Outdoors in the Caravan with wife Melinda, Charley and daughter Molly.
Club culture was another big factor in the move where both committee and coaching staff were not only welcoming and friendly but incredibly hard-working, all to ensure that the players and their families had a wonderful matchday experience.
After hanging up the boots 6 years ago Justin decided to focus solely on his coaching signing up for numerous coaching courses and spending hours on the training pitch with different teams to find a style and system of training that he believes his players would respond to. "I find the game is constantly changing and being flexible and adaptable plus ensuring everyone is having plenty of fun is the key to success".
Justin is currently coaching the u/12s Kangas where his son Jaiden is playing and ls looking forward to an exciting year ahead.
Mike played junior football growing up in the Adelaide Hills and returned to the world game later in life, including several enjoyable seasons in the local football league while living and working in Lausanne, Switzerland. Mike’s family joined the Mount Eliza Soccer Club (MESC) in 2017 and was a first time coach of the ‘U7 Reds’ in 2018.
Blessed with a wonderful and supportive group of players and families, the team developed fast from a slow start and enjoyed an undefeated U8 Joey’s season in 2019. These fast growing boys are now looking to test themselves (and their coach) at Kangaroo level.
The club has played a major role in Mike and family joining to the Mount Eliza community and he was therefore delighted to join the club as Secretary in 2020 – also assisting on the Football Committee. Mike is keen to see the MESC develop its facilities and play its essential role as an accessible local club that adds great value to our village community.
By day Richelle is in medical administration, by night a Mum and late night our Registrar.
Richelle has her eye set on increasing our girls teams from 2 to 4 in the 2019 season. (One of many goals!)
She has built a good relationship with our coaches, team managers and members over the last year and is looking forward to another season of community spirit and great soccer.
Her Husband Jim, an ex-goalkeeper, is also part of the club and is in his 3rd year of coaching for the miniroos.
Melanie has an 11 year old son who is a keen soccer player. He joined the club in 2016 and it was soon obvious that soccer was going to be his sport! It was then that Melanie decided to get involved in the club.
With over 20 years in bookkeeping, Melanie didn’t think twice about taking on the position of Bookkeeper when it became available at the end of 2017. Now Melanie is proudly the Treasurer of the Mount Eliza Soccer Club.
Melanie works part time as a Bookkeeper/Trust Accountant at a local real estate agency. She loves the lifestyle of living and working in Mount Eliza and being able to walk to everything.
Gary Played his Junior Football at both Doveton and Clayton. Playing senior Football at 17 before an ankle injury moved him away from the game.
Taking up coaching at the age of 21 under the guidance of Tim White (Victorian Director of Football), Gary has spent many of the last 30 years coaching Junior Football and has his FFA/FFC B Licence.
Gary's roles have included:
- Langwarrin SC - Community Teams Technical Director
- Springvale White Eagles NPL Technical Director (4.5 years)
- FFV South/South East SAP Head Coach
In 2019 Gary took a side from Langwarrin to the Tomsan Cup in Japan and is due to take another team in 2020.
Gary also manages Sportsco in Mornington.
The football committee was set up to look for new ways to improve the quality of football at the club and make it an enjoyable experience at training and during games. In 2019 he helped set up the Mt Eliza Soccer Adacemy as a development arm of the club.
Growing up with football in North West London, Neil has been coaching mini-roos at Mt Eliza Soccer Club since 2013.
Having stood on the sidelines watching football as a parent, he soon caught the coaching bug and became an advocate of the FFA's Skills Aquisition Program.
He's saw his teams make 5 finals in 3 years including the 2018 Shepperton Cup. He has 2 sons playing football, the eldest playing in the National Premier League and is always happy to talk about soccer.
Always a leader on the field Brandt took over as a playing coach before a knee injury pushed him into full time coaching, which he has learned to love and is learning more about with every game and every training session.
Scott and his family have been members of Mt Eliza Soccer club since 2011. When his son Sam decided to play u7s, as a soccer novice, Scott took on an assistant coaching role and hasn’t looked back.
During this time he has been an assistant coach, coach and team manager for his son’s team and more recently assisted the committee in setting up and maintaining our Team App presence and supporting the Mt Eliza Cup in 2018.
Scott has seen our club grow from two small junior pitches at Howard Parker with eight teams in 2011 into one of the fastest growing clubs in the region that now has approximately 40 teams in 2019 ranging from U6 to seniors. It was the opportunity to help the Mt Eliza establish itself as an inclusive, family oriented club that can provide pathways for our junior players that prompted him to join the Mt Eliza Soccer Club committee in 2019.
When not tyring balancing the work, family and club you’ll find Scott looking for the next big game to watch or learning more from other members and friends about soccer.
Feel free to stop him for a chat when you see him wandering around at Emil Madsen or Mt Eliza Secondary during the season!
Now in the Under 16s team, Mylo has also been joined by his younger sister Ella who decided to make the switch from girls footy to soccer and is this year playing Under 13s. After playing in every team he could get into as a kid, it's fair to say that Steve is delighted to see both his children now also playing the beautiful game.
With 20 years Marketing and PR experience, getting more involved with the club this year as Communications Manager was a natural step for Steve and he's enjoying helping to spread the word for our growing soccer community.
Aside from always being happy to talk soccer (particularly the EPL and Scottish Premier), Steve always has time to chat cars and cycling.
