2024 Hostplus SANFL Volunteer of the Year Finalist – Louise Trapp

By JORDAN ROUTLEY

You would be hard-pressed to find a volunteer more dedicated to their club than Hahndorf Football Club’s Louise Trapp.

The sister of former Hahndorf player and current Sturt Football Manager Chris Trapp, Louise’s connection to the club stems from her earliest days, spending Saturdays watching her brothers play for the Magpies.

So when her two sons decided to take up Auskick at the club, she immediately offered to help coordinate the program, thus kick-starting an unyielding passion for the club.

“One of the motivating factors for me was being involved in a club I grew up with spending Saturday nights watching ‘Hey Hey It’s Saturday’ in the corner,” Trapp said.

She is still the club’s Auskick Coordinator today and serves as Junior Director, all while giving her time to work in the bar and canteen, coordinate school visits, organise functions and sell club merchandise.

Growing up in an era when female football was virtually non-existent, Trapp has been determined to expand female involvement at Hahndorf and was crucial in establishing the club’s first senior women’s team.

“We are only five years into women’s football in the Hills, so we are still developing and getting girls that have never played the game and teaching fundamentals of handballing, kicking and how to hold the ball,” Trapp said.

“It was just that sense of achievement that even though they (U14s) got smashed in the grand final, we spoke about margins and celebrating those little wins they had and instilling the confidence that they can do it.

“Some of those kids I taught in Auskick are now going through U14s and all the way through the modified programs, so I’ve got this great relationship with the kids all across the age groups so it is really rewarding in that sense.”

After several years of hard work to establish the foundations of the female program, Trapp is proud of the results this work has garnered and the impact it is having on the club.

“We have gone from being a male-dominated club that was still quite successful to now struggling for greenspace at our facilities because we have effectively doubled our program, which is a good problem to have,” she said.

“I think increasing our programs and getting that 50-50 split between males and females and also increasing our female participation all the way through our programs is a massive achievement.

“For a while, I was the only female at our senior committee meetings and now we are at a 50-50 split and that has helped open the door for others which is really exciting.”

Trapp has also been focused on increasing female participation in volunteering duties around the club, evidenced by the recent effort to host a final at Hahndorf Oval in which the female program played a key role.

“We had the women’s team running the BBQ, the U14s were doing food runs, other groups doing canteen shifts and it was a really successful day because we had a good volunteer base and it all ran very smoothly,” she said.

Louise is one of seven finalists for the 2024 Hostplus SANFL Volunteer of the Year Award, with the winner to be announced at the annual SANFL Community Volunteers Awards Night at Adelaide Oval on Friday, 11 October.