At the recent AGM the following nomination for Life Membership of Geoff Holland was presented to the meeting:

Geoffs earliest memory of rugby is in 1952, excitedly being packed up with his Dad to head to the Oamaru showgrounds and Athletic Rugby Club rooms.  This is where a lifelong love of our game begun.

After Geoff left the deep south and settled in Auckland in 1988 he found his way to Teachers Eastern Rugby Football Club by way of his sons wanting to play.

His youngest son Chris played for the club from 1988 – 1997 and his oldest son Ross played for 2 seasons over this time.

In 1989 Geoff was told he looked like a coach and was co-opted into coaching his sons team, this started a life of service to the club.  Geoff coached Chris through the Grades from 1989 – 1997.  He also then coached a team of waifs and strays from 1998 through to the early 2000’s to keep rugby alive at the club.  There wasn’t often a Thursday night or a Saturday morning when Geoff didn’t have a ute full of boys driving to and from a multitude of rugby grounds around the city.  It even got to the point where his accountant warned him about the non-business usage of petrol!

Outside of this Geoff was also a committee member on the TERFU Junior Committee from 1991 – 2008, the clubs Junior Delegate to the ARU Boys Management Board from 1996 – 2008 and a member of the TERFU Committee from 1996 – 2015.

Despite all this going on he always made himself available when required to go out to games to pre weigh teams, and make sure all teams are registered and in order and has some fantastic stories of the tom-foolery that went on over the years.

Geoff is exceedingly proud of a couple of events that happened on his watch that he has a hand in over the years, both of which have had a strong resurgence as they are just common sense – Geoff was ahead of his time:

1. -The change of junior rugby for a couple of years to weight based rather than age based which allowed some of the smaller unions to start winning the championships – this was voted out after 2 years. 
2. The formation of a woman team at TERFC.

Once Geoff finished with coaching he didn’t lose the bug and spent years following the TERFC Premiers, just helping out with whatever was needed.  Post-merger Geoff has brought his usefulness to the Under 85s Grade and has not missed a weekend, rain or shine with his beloved Wha performing the duties of Aqua-Nutritionist with distinction.  If the Wha are not playing, he will be helping out with the Old Boys.  Even a hip replacement didn’t slow him down.

Geoff has held season tickets to Eden Park for many, many years and could count on one hand the amount of Auckland, Blues and All Blacks games he has missed.

What this simple timeline above shows during his time at TERFC and GTEC is the passion this man has, how he, like his Dad threw his kids in a backpack to trek to games far and wide.  Geoff has always made himself available for whatever work has been happening around the club, fundraising, working bees, supporting teams and management.  He has been and is well respected and liked by his peers and the many boys and young men that he has coached and managed over the years.  Geoff is not a loud man and certainly not one to blow his own trumpet.  Some may not know him by name but they will certainly recognise him from the countless Saturdays he has been at the club supporting us in whatever way is required.  Club rugby is built on the backs of good honest people like Geoff, he is utterly dependable, will always be there for his club and thoroughly deserves to be a Life Member of the GTEC Rugby Club.

The members present voted unanimously to support this nomination and welcome Geoff Holland as a life member of Grammar TEC Rugby Club.

Article added: Friday 04 December 2020