This week in Perth the focus has been on the Fremantle Dockers’ captain Matthew Pavlich and his pending 300th game of AFL football. But not far from Patersons Stadium, just up the Fremantle train line at Lemnos Hockey Turf in Shenton Park, another long servant will coach his 299th game of hockey.
He will then turn his attention to preparing his side for battle against Fremantle in what will be his 300th game as a hockey coach. His name is Jerome Buck, and in his 15th year as a hockey coach there is no doubt his star is on the rise.
A 15-year career has taken him far and wide from his home in Perth to New Zealand, Melbourne, Adelaide, Tasmania and points in between, but when talking with Jerome this week I got a distinct feeling that this is one coaching career that is far from coming to and end. In fact, it’s only just beginning.
“I have a real passion for hockey and enjoy coaching,” Buck said.
“And while I have enjoyed every minute of the last 15 years, I feel I have so much more to do and achieve.”
Last year was a break-out year for Buck in terms of representative coaching, getting opportunities at regional and state level for the first time in Victoria. But as Buck says, it was also a year of the near miss, falling just short of the ultimate team success as a coach.
After a year away in Melbourne, Buck has returned home to Perth, to coach with the WASPS Hockey Club, and in particular their Women’s 3s. He said he’d gained a lot from his time away.
“It was a fantastic opportunity for me,” he said.
“It rounded me off as a coach it taught me a great deal about not only myself but also how I coach, and helped me improve my coaching.
“I feel that I am now far more relaxed and positive in how I go about things.”
And what’s next for Jerome Buck?
“Right now I am focussed on this season and coaching the WASPS Women’s 3s to what I hope will be very successful,” he said.
“Then at the conclusion of this season I will do what I have done for the last 15 years, sit down and take stock and think about the future.”
I asked him if that future would perhaps include coaching at international level, and with what I thought was a twinkle in his eye he said, “Well as I say my focus is on this season, beyond that who knows.”
In this young student journalist’s humble opinion I get the feeling that this coach on the rise might just have that eye with a twinkle in it on larger honours.
I would like to wish Jerome well for his 300th game and he and his team the best of luck for the remainder of the season, and encourage everyone with in the hockey community of Australia to take a close look at this coach before someone else does.
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