Redskins Touch Club
Redskins Touch Club is a Touch Football Club that competes at the Townsville Castle Hill Touch Association. Redskins home grounds are at Greenwood Park, Thuringowa
History
Redskins Touch Club has a rich and proud history, having made their debut into the Townsville Castle Hill Touch Association when the competition began in 1974. The original team was formed by a group of local rugby Union Players of the City Rugby Union Club (known today as the Ross River Redskins). The emblem of the CRU, a Redskin Indian, was adopted and the touch football team, City Redskins, later shortened to simply Redskins, was born.
Redskins became the first touch football club to form in the TCHTA competition when they entered their second team, followed by a merger with the Great Northern Raiders. The benefits of the merger were twofold: both teams had a good player base; but most notably, the merger allowed for a sponsor, in the Great Northern Hotel, and also created a major source of income, being the Goose Club.
In the early days of the club, training was held at 'Wounded Knee', now known as Lou Lister Park on Boundary Street. An old house served as the clubhouse and bar - for after training sessions. Instrumental in the formation of Redskins Touch Club, Tony Hymus became the first club President.
Competition games were played at Mindham Park (when it wasn't under water). Teams consisted of eight players who ran bare foot on a full-sized rugby league field. The game was very much like rugby league, with markers allowed and the requirement of having to roll the ball with one's foot. At the time, players needed to be of at least 25 years of age, and weren't permitted to play rugby league or rugby union. The reason behind this was due to touch football having a large ex-league or ex-union player base, and it was decided that the game of touch football should not remove players from the main football codes in the city.
The competition back then was dominated by men, with women's Touch Football not commencing until 1983. The first of the club's women's teams was called the Squaws. Redskins Touch Club won their first premiership in 1980, and have since been a major force in the Townsville Castle Hill Touch Association competition.
The club is without a doubt the most successful and dominant touch football club in the Townsville Castle Hill Touch Association competition. It caters for all age groups, genders and skill levels. Redskins celebrated its 30th year in 2004 and in its time the club has developed a great sense of pride, sportsmanship and loyalty in all members, past and present.
Greenwood Park
Redskins Touch Club became involved in the development of Greenwood Park when plans to develop the site in Kirwan were released in 2001. In 2002, the club embarked on the first stages of developing the vacant land into eight fully irrigated sporting fields. Each field is 50 m x 80 m and in accordance with the national standards for touch football fields. The installation of field lighting to an average of 125Lux and the construction of multi-use recreational trails around the perimeter of the park were undertaken and completed in 2002 also. During 2002 and 2003 a number of Redskins' members spent a great deal of time digging trenches, running cable and conduit for lighting, pouring concrete slabs and a concrete foundation, installing pole anchors, putting together 20 m poles and then standing them, fitting lights, installing and wiring switchboards, fitting off cables and testing. Over 1000 hours - yes you read that right - of time was supplied by many dedicated workers in this early stage of development so that Redskins Touch Club had a place to call home. These people sacrificed weekends and often came after work when they could have been relaxing. The third stage of development commenced in mid-2004. It included the construction of a multi-functional sport and recreation facility, with car parking. The facility includes club administration rooms and a large indoor activity space. With much excitement, Redskins moved to its new home in March 2004. The forward thinking of Rick Guerra, Matt Salmon and the Executive Committee in 2001 were instrumental in establishing Redskins in one of the Twin cities growth areas, with facilities of an international standard.
Tribal Voice
Tribal Voice is the official newsletter of Redskins Touch Club. It is released monthly and is available electronically via the Redskins Touch website (see "External Links"). The newsletter contains relevant information AbOUT the game of Touch Football in Townsville and all topics concerning the Redskins Touch Club.
RedskinsTouch.com
RedskinsTouch.com is the official website of Redskins Touch Club. It is the most up-to-date source of all information regarding the sport of Touch Football in Townsville. It is constantly updated to allow the world to know what's going on at local, regional, state, national and international levels of Touch. The website features a fully functional members area where registered members can download items of their interest, chat in the official online forum 'The Clubhouse', participate in an online NRL tipping competion, sign up for eNewsletters and much more.