Riverside Olympic Soccer Club (ROSC) and Riverside Olympic Junior Soccer Club (ROJSC) are pleased to announce the merger of the two clubs to become Riverside Olympic FC.
The merger was carefully planned with the purpose of allowing every player to develop to their highest potential; young or old, male & female. The new club is committed to long-term player development in both recreational and competitive programs while cultivating a lifelong passion for the game.
Both clubs came to the decision to merge after twelve months of deliberations by representatives of both clubs, to combine resources and remove duplication between the two former clubs. The new combined club will provide a clear football pathway from our youngest Under 6 players through to senior Men’s and Women’s teams. Whilst retaining a focus on player and team excellence, the club aims to maintain it’s more social and
recreational teams, for players who just enjoying playing the game without having to give a high level commitment. The new club is also looking to reinforce its already strongly family friendly values and culture at the club.
Riverside Olympic Soccer Club was founded in 1967 and was initially based at Kings Meadows High School and then the Ravenswood Recreation Ground, before moving to its current base in Riverside. The club has won multiple titles in various leagues in its time and also had a team entered in a Tasmanian State League competition in the mid 1990’s. The club is aiming to obtain a license to compete in the NPL (Tasmania) league and Women’s Super League from 2019 onwards, allowing all of our players the opportunity to play football at the highest level in Tasmania
“We are grateful to the members of both ROSC and ROJSC for their vision in recognising the potential of these two great clubs coming together as one,” said incoming ROFC President Stuart McCarron. Riverside Olympic Junior Soccer Club was formed in the mid 1980s and was originally called Tamar Olympic, after the amalgamation of teams from Riverside and Trevallyn Primary schools. The club eventually progressed to ROJSC and draws players mainly from the West Tamar area. Teams from the club compete in the Northern Tasmanian Junior Soccer Association competitions and the club has been fortunate to win the NTJSA club of the year a number of times including most recently back-to-back in
2015 & 2016. “We are excited to see the evolution and result from pulling together two strong organisational cultures to provide a new framework for developing football at every level at Riverside and in the West Tamar region”, said new ROFC secretary Crystal Neep.
With over eighty years of history between the two clubs, the two amalgamated clubs had an approximate playing membership number of 550 players in season 2016, from 4-year olds to 50+ year olds, male and female. The club will be taking to the field in 2017, its 50th year of operation, in all age groups and grades as Riverside Olympic FC, with Lynden Prince as Senior Men’s coach, Nick Rawlinson as Senior Women’s
coach and Alan Eadie as Technical Director.