SSWA welcomes Peter Rickers as our newly elected President

Newly appointed School Sport WA President Peter Rickers started his involvement with School Sport WA in 1983 when he was selected as the coach for the U/19 State Schoolboys Football team that toured to Brisbane, Queensland. Since those early years Peter has filled the roles of Manager, Secretary, Sports Coordinator, Management Committee member and now President of the association. Peter is also a Physical Education teacher and head of the Football program at John Curtin College of the Arts.

Peter is hugely experienced in conducting tours to various parts of the world and has accompanied four tours to South Africa where Western Australian teams have attended the Stellenberg Sports Festival in Cape Town. Peter has taken his own school football teams to Singapore and Indonesia on fourteen separate occasions and enjoyed tremendous success.

A highlight of Peter’s coaching career was his appointment to, firstly the assistant coach of the Australian U/19 Schoolboys Football team when competing in China and Japan and then Head Coach of the Australian team when they toured the United Kingdom and Ireland. This tour was followed with a tour of Brazil and Argentina. Amazingly the tour to the UK and Ireland was the first time that the Australian Schoolboys Football team had been undefeated on tour with seven wins and two draws.

Peter is looking forward to helping take School Sport WA into the next phase of its development. He feels there is an enormous need to continue to bring vibrant and committed teachers into the association and maintain the strength and popularity of our “Champion Schools” competitions along with continuing our participation in an enormous range of National Championships.

Peter said, “School Sport WA offers the opportunity for teachers to develop, travel, coach, manage and generally improve themselves through involvement in the domestic, National and International programs on offer. I would encourage all staff to get involved and make a difference to young people’s lives through sport”