When Collie resident Joy Bailey first set eyes on hockey as a youngster, she turned into purported to be playing netball. Joy said she became entranced with the aid of the sport’s talent and quickly fell in love with the competition, which in the end took her to the alternative side of the sector with the countrywide group. “I didn’t like netball, so I was on foot past the high school wherein they were gambling hockey,” she said.
“I thought to myself that looked amusing and ended up sitting there for 3 hours.
“A female got here throughout to me after a while – Pat Campbell I think it changed into – and requested ‘Would you like to play hockey?’ and I advised her I’d like to.” Joy was geared up to start education with the players she had been looking after, quickly getting to know the fundamentals, but she also continued to go above and beyond. “I fell in love with the sport without delay – from then, I in no way took a hockey stick out of my hand,” she stated.
“I might run to Minninup Pool and lower back every morning, and once I got home, dad would have a copper full of hot water so I could have a bath then get prepared for school.
“When I got here home from faculty, I would bash, flick and pull the ball in opposition to the soak properly – I usually became in the backyard doing something till I was known as in for food.” Within a couple of years (1955), she turned into selected in the State aspect as a sixteen-12 months-vintage.
Her dad drove her two hours in each course to ordinary schooling periods in Perth earlier than she started residing inside the State’s capital on a new permanent foundation.
“He took me up and returned for one season, but I notion that was an excessive amount of for him to do at his age, so I desired to go to Perth and play if they might permit me,” Joy said. “That turned into a monstrously large move to go away my own family.
“I went up within the summer season to modify, played hockey in the wintry weather, went domestic next summer season, turned into again up once more for the subsequent hockey season, and then stayed due to the fact I changed into a touch older.” She made her national debut in 1959 and went on to play ten games for Australia, along with on an excursion to Holland. There had been greater possibilities to play foreign places; however, she couldn’t have enough money to pay her way at the time.
“Having to give you your own money turned into tough to do, and I simply couldn’t place that on my dad and mom,” she stated. “I’d set my points of interest on two matters although – to play for the State and to play for Australia, I did the whole lot I attempted to acquire.”
Along with her gambling achievement, she considers returning to her home city and giving lower back as the most pleasant highlights.
“I loved teaching children,” she stated. “When they may be playing and playing it, they didn’t even realize they had been enhancing. “The youngsters in the bottom movement, at the grassroots, are those you need to attend to if you want to maintain the game robust.”
When Joy returned to Collie, she positioned an advert inside the paper calling out for juniors inquisitive about gambling the sport as she becomes worried by using low numbers.
She turned into inundated using extra than forty players and called on the boy’s coaches to assist her out.
“That changed into a bit hard for me to handle on my own, so we broke them up into four teams and made an opposition of it,” she stated. “We always trained together in a collection even though every weekend due to the fact we desired it to be amusing.” Watching her four daughters – Karen, Glenys, Deanne, and Krystina – play the same sport for WA turned into something else that gave Joy and her husband Gordon unique pride.
“I never forced them, and it became all approximately what they wanted to do,” she stated.
At the weekend, Joy was inducted into Hockey WA’s Hall of Champions. She is also a member of Collie’s Sporting Hall of Fame and has formerly been named in the group of the century at Perth hockey membership YMCC. Joy stated she become proud to be acknowledged for what she had carried out, but she never played with things like that during mind. “I performed for the group and my dad and mom,” she said.
