People of Touch - Aida Catalano

Meet Aida Catalano (pictured right)

Affiliates that you're involved in: I was first involved with Western Suburbs (Sydney) as a parent when my kids first started playing. It looked fun so I signed up to play in the Adult comp also. I am still involved at Western Suburbs as a player and a parent and now as the Junior Touch Football Administrator. I am also the Administrator of Northern Suburbs Touch Football.

NSW Region: My Region is Sydney Mets, I hold the position of Junior Administrator for the representative teams.

You've also been involved with Rugby League - tell us about that?
I was previously involved with the Concord-Burwood Wolves and have held positions of President, Secretary, Treasurer. Up until last year I was the Operations Manager of the Concord-Burwood Wolves Ron Massey Cup side that competes in the NSWRL competition.

How did you first get involved with Touch Football?
I was first involved as a parent. My kids wanted to play social Touch around 10 years ago so we signed them up at Western Suburbs. Since then I've been involved with them every step of the way. When my husband sold business I was looking for a job in sport and saw the Northern Suburbs Touch Administrator role advertised. I was lucky enough to be appointed and now I work in the sport my family loves.

What improvements and initiatives have you seen at Northern Suburbs during your time as an administrator?
The Northern Suburbs Junior Competition has grown from 20 teams back in 2014 to 86 in 2018. Our home at Artarmon Reserve is only small so the Junior competition has outgrown the field size. To help with this, we moved the Girls youth league sides into the Women’s competition to ensure we aren’t starting games too late for the Juniors.

What is your Touch Football highlight so far?
In 2017 my son’s team won the NSW Junior State Cup 16 Boys division by scoring the winning try with four seconds left on the clock. This was a terrific win as we were playing a very strong and skilful Manly Sea Eagles side.

(At the time of writing), the NRL Touch Premiership is in full swing and you were involved as Manager of the Tigers Women’s side last season. Who do you see going all the way and winning a Premiership?
Tigers Women’s without a doubt. I am involved again this year and they are ready to go back to back. In the Men’s I am hopeful the Tigers can go one better, though the Titans team looks the strongest on paper. We will have to wait and see.