By Fatima Halloum
You’d think finding out you’ve been awarded a Medal of the Order of Australia would be a fancy affair, but Ivo John Havard learned via email that he’d been recognised for his outstanding community work at a number of sporting clubs across Wyndham.
“I opened the email and I’m thinking, ’what is this?’,“ he said.
“There’s definitely a bit of pride that goes into receiving awards, but everything you do is not for awards, but I suppose it’s a pretty big one, isn’t it?“
Mr Havard said he’s had a lifetime full of sport between his involvement in football and cricket, and believes he’s coached upwards of 20,000 games, assisted with keeping the Werribee Football Club from extinction, started up the Super Rules, the women’s programs and introduced Auskick to the football club.
“I started playing cricket at nine, so that’s about 58 years of continued involvement,“ he said.
“I think I might be into coaching third generation sons and daughters.“
Mr Havard said his own children, Mitchell and Nathan, and his wife Karen have been “really amazing“ at supporting him over the years and were “very proud“ of what he has accomplished.
“It’s tough on them sometimes, I do know that, I’ve put them through a lot over those last few years,“ he said.
However, Mr Havard said the “people side“ of sports kept him going, and he feels passionate about helping people be as good as they can be.
“Your connection with people is your reward,“ he said.
“You get lifelong friendships from sporting clubs, it’s a significant part of the bigger community, it’s an amazing connection.“
Mr Havard said he was thankful to the friends who nominated him and is looking forward to seeing what the future holds.
“I’ll forever be supporting people participating, it doesn’t have to be top-notch sport, it can be any level of sporting achievement as long as people are out there giving it a go,“ he said.
“I’ve still got some boxes to tick.
“It should be good.“
