Senneck takes charge at Old Bens
There’s a new chairwoman at the helm of Old Bens, and she is on a mission to take the club forward in 2014.
Virna Senneck, who previously served as secretary of the club for two years, was voted in as chairwoman at the club’s annual general meeting, in December, last year, and has a number of plans and ideas to maintain and grow the club from where former chairwoman Anna Clark left off.
She has a long history with Old Bens after being at the side of her husband, Neil, who has been involved with football and coaching at the club for 12 years.
In terms of football, Senneck has a particular interest in the development of the club’s junior players.
“The juniors, starting out in their age groups, need to look up to the senior teams for inspiration and go from playing at u-6 level to one day representing the sport at senior level, and even nationally and internationally,” she said.
“I want to continue the legacy left by Anna and Dave Clark and keep the momentum going.”
The club are undergoing some changes, with three more soccer fields being developed, so there will be more space for the junior teams, due to the recent decision to resize junior fields.
“We are hoping to have those bottom fields ready and playable by the time junior season kicks off on April 5, and we have been working very hard to get our fields back up to scratch by ensuring that we have enough space for all the juniors we want to attract to the club,” Senneck said.
The new chairwoman added that the club are also bringing in some new coaches for the junior teams.
“We have Ray Cloete (new first team coach), who will be developing the seniors and Mark Henderson, who will not only be coaching this year, but also overseeing our junior coaches and helping them to develop their players and assist in identifying potential,” she said.
“I am looking forward to it and I think that it be an awesome season for the club.
“Last year we had a few hiccoughs at the start of the season, but I think this year is going to be a great comeback for our club.
“We are going to shine and make things happen at a level that the clubs in the surrounding areas haven’t seen for some time.”
With regard to the status quo of last year’s suspension of the club from all leagues, by Easterns, Senneck commented: “That suspension was ultimately overturned and our club was reinstated.
“Everybody knew that what was done to our club was not right and that the right processes had not been followed.
“Our seniors were dropped down a division and our juniors stayed at the level they were initially at.
“It did affect the club, because we were reinstated only two to three weeks into the season, but we came back quite nicely at the end, so we can be very proud of ourselves.
“We have not had any further issues in terms of the suspension, and hopefully we won’t have any more issues on that front this year.
“I have big shoes to fill and, as excited and motivated as I am about making things happen at the club, it can be quite daunting, but I do know that I have great support here.”
Senneck is closely involved in local sport and has coached the u-5 and u-7 junior hockey teams at Benoni Northerns for four years.
She is also involved in baseball and softball as a level three provincial scorer and has scored across all the age groups, right up to masters’ level.
“I am involved with various sports and have also been involved as the ‘first aid person’ with Dave and the first team for years, and have been a soccer mom since my son, Brandon (17), was five years old,” Senneck said.
“Getting the fields to the standard we want them to be at, sponsorship to fix things around the club and space are some of the challenges that we face.
“The other challenge is that there is a certain part of the community that may still believe the stigma that was created by last year’s suspension and, for that reason, they have a bit of a negative perception of Old Bens.
“We are a club that stands for and was grown on honesty and integrity and we will continue with those beliefs.”
Senneck urged people to come and experience Old Bens for the club that they are, and to not believe the negative things that they may have heard about them.
