RESURFACING four bitumen netball courts at Barnes Park is just one of the projects for new Warwick Netball Association president Darryl Roche.

Late last year he was approached by several committee members to take on the presidency, and was elected as only the second man to head Warwick’s leading women’s sport. The first was David Goodwin.

“I was always there at the junior netball,” Darryl said.

Darryl and his wife Trish jointly managed the Warwick under-13 challenge carnival team last year and will fulfil the same role for the under-14s at a state carnival in Townsville on the May long weekend.

They first started heading to netball on Saturdays in winter when their 13-year-old twins, Eilish and Kiarna, first played the sport seven years ago.

Darryl said the resurfacing of the four bitumen courts would cost up to $50,000.

He expects only minimal disruption to junior fixtures as games can be played on the four grass courts when work is in progress.

One of his hopes for the season is to organise more coaching clinics for senior players and umpires.

Netball is fairly well served for junior clinics, but he is keen to have more clinics for the seniors.

He supports a proposed new end-of-season carnival at the Gold Coast.

“A lot of the players already organise a trip to the coast at the end of the season,” Darryl said.

Darryl isn’t a believer in long-term presidencies.

“I think two years is enough for any president, but I don’t have a problem if a president has a break and returns later,” he said.

Twins Eilish and Kiarna expect to be allocated a few more netball-based jobs this season but won’t be complaining as they will be playing the sport they love twice a week.

With their junior representative team playing senior fixtures for the first time, they will play senior fixtures on a Monday night at WIRAC and junior games each Saturday at Barnes Park as well as Darling Downs Inter-district netball on some Sundays.

Darryl is delighted the association has an income stream due to its joint ownership of the Condamine Sports Club with hockey, Cowboys rugby league, rugby union and cricket clubs/associations.

“We support the sports club by having our functions there,” Darryl said.

He certainly isn’t complaining that the netball association is based at Barnes Park, Glennie Heights, in one of the highest areas of town and well away from any flood concerns.

After last week’s flood, Darryl pitched in to help clean up at the hockey grounds as son Luke plays for Wyverns and daughter Holly has played some junior hockey.