Volunteering is generally considered an altruistic activity where an individual or group provides services for no financial gain. Volunteering is also renowned for skill development and is often intended to promote goodness or to improve human quality of life. Many volunteers are specifically trained in the areas they work, such as medicine, education, or emergency rescue.
Youth sports has a myriad of different types of volunteers that range from parents who coach, to coaches with no children on the team, to parent reps, to team managers or board members, and many more. At Shock Basketball, we are lucky to have two of the BEST volunteers that a program could ask for, and they also happen to be the President and Director of our program. For 13 years, both Deryl and Rhonda Dawdy have volunteered their time to make the St. Thomas Shock Basketball program THE provider of youth basketball in Elgin County and the best fundamental and skill developing basketball program around!
They truly are the driving force behind the program that has grown year after year, and they do it while serving many roles. While holding positions of President and Director on our Executive, both are also very active in running our clinics that are designed to be fun while learning the basic skills of the game. With many hours being spent setting up registration, running registration, booking gyms for the upcoming season, ordering basketballs and shirts for our clinics, making sure that the website is updated, and handling the finances of the program, they also manage to coach multiple travel teams each year. In the last two seasons, they have coached five travel teams at various ages while still helping out with other travel teams in our program. On top of that, they still manage to show up at tournaments and games of other Shock teams to show their support and cheer them on.
Deryl and Rhonda’s sole focus is on the betterment of every student/athlete in our program and the success of the program itself. Perhaps the most interesting part about these two people is that they not only spend hundreds of hours each season together organizing and driving all over Southwestern Ontario, but they spend the rest of their time together as husband and wife! Deryl is retired from GM, and while many people spend their retirement years travelling and seeing the world, Deryl spends a multitude of hours making sure that everything is running smoothly with all facets of the Shock Basketball program. Rhonda currently works for a great program called PGC Basketball, and she makes sure that the program is organized ‘down to a T.’ Most would think that it isn’t a big deal as they probably have kids in the program. However, both of their children are grown adults and haven’t played in the program for almost 11 years.
Tyler Dawdy is a manager at a retail store in Oakville and continues to drive back to St. Thomas to help with clinics and as an assistant coach on a boys travel team. Nicole is a hairstylist in St. Thomas, and she spent many seasons as an assistant coach with a girls travel team. It truly was and is a family affair with the Dawdys, and they really do epitomize the true definition of a ‘volunteer.’ The St. Thomas Shock program is blessed to have two of the most amazing volunteers in this area!
Submitted by St. Thomas Shock Basketball
