For Lisa and Steve Wild, the Waihī Athletic Rugby Club is like a second home.
The rugby-mad couple were finalists in the 2024 ASB Rugby Awards for the Charles Monro Rugby Volunteer of the Year, and for good reason.
But they don’t do it for the recognition, they said – they do it for the people.
“The club is not just about us boys. It’s about the wives, the kids, it’s about the families,” Steve said.
“It is a neat vibe walking in here, and just knowing that you don’t have to know anybody or anything, but everybody’s welcome. We’ve been welcomed in with open arms since we came five, six years ago, and so we just try to do that with everybody else that walks in these doors,” Lisa added.
Rippa Rugby was what initially drew the couple to the club, as they looked for a team for their sons Austin and Carter. Now their boys have moved up to the juniors, Lisa and Steve are still heavily involved with coaching and managing the younger teams.
“We took over the Rippa Rugby programme. When we started there were only 14 or 16 kids,” they said.
“But we still run it on a Friday night. It’s grown huge; we’ve got kids right from two and a half, three years old up to about six. And then we encourage them to get into the junior rugby tackle teams.”
The 2025 rugby season is on the horizon now, with the senior teams already well into their pre-season training. Steve, who played for the Senior A team a few years ago, said the players were keen to continue their unbeaten streak from last year.
The juniors will be kicking off a little later, towards the end of term one.
And for the Wilds, that’s when their work will ramp up again, too.
“We do joke that we should probably have a bedroom here during our rugby season,” Lisa said.
“We’re both on the junior committee… We do all the merchandise. You can find me in the kitchen, cooking meals for the seniors, behind the bar, we come in and clean.
“We do everything pretty much, just fully immersed ourselves in the club.”
It’s this dedication that motivated one of the committee members to nominate them for the awards. But Lisa and Steve said they were just one small part of an awesome team.
“We couldn’t do it without everybody else in our committee, in this club, nothing,” they said.
“We don’t feel like we do enough. Obviously, they think we do, but we just do what we do because we love it.”
The couple said their main motivation was ensuring their kids – and everyone else’s – felt like they had a place to belong.
“I was pretty much raised in a small rural rugby club,” Lisa said.
“So that’s definitely what I want for my kids. And it doesn’t necessarily have to be rugby, but that club involvement and community involvement is awesome for the kids.
“It just opens doors for young kids these days, you know? Having a place where they seem to belong. Our kids, they will come in here on any day of the week, and all the older guys and the senior players will be in here. And it’s always, ‘hey, mate’, or they’re fist pumping or handshaking. And the junior kids watch the senior guys, and the senior guys are watching the junior guys.
“It’s just all about creating those relationships.”
