A CHAPTER will close at the Western Region Academy of Sport next month with the retirement of executive officer Nancy Haslop.

She has called time on her career in the position after 16 years, having previously been involved with WRAS as a basketball coach and board member.

It isn’t a decision she has made lightly, but given the amount of time and effort she has dedicated to her position since taking up the post in January, 2000, a nice rest is a perfect and well-earned reward.

“I’m going to play grandma, visit my friends who I haven’t been able to have a coffee with for 10 years,” she explained.

“I had a couple of friends who worked until they were 70 or 75, retired, and lasted a month. They didn’t get the chance to enjoy it, that was the catalyst for me.

“I don’t want to do anything involving sport immediately, but I think I might volunteer to work at some events if I get the chance, maybe when the Sydney tennis tournament is on there might be an opportunity to volunteer.”

Originally from Lithgow, Haslop and sport have been intertwined for as long as she can remember.

It was a natural progression that saw her go from playing whatever sports she could, to getting into coaching and sporting administration.

She specialised in basketball initially as far as her coaching went, but was a part of anything she could get involved in when it came to participating. 

Even rugby league got a start.

“I did play a lot of sport, pretty much anything that was going,” she said. 

“I had a referee’s certificate in soccer, basketball and hockey, and I was playing soccer, rugby league, table tennis, netball, basketball – anything that was going really.

“I played [league] for a while, when Shamrocks were a big force in Lithgow they had a women’s comp running.

“It hasn’t been hard to maintain the passion for sport, it is doing what you love.”

The continuing development of sports science, new coaching techniques and talent identification have all played a part in shaping Haslop’s work over the past 16 years, but life experience have also helped her do such a thorough job.

A varied career before she took the position gave her a wide skill set with which to help bring through generation after generation of western region sportspeople.

“The jobs that I had prior to this, every one of them helped me out,” she explained.

“I worked for the government for 19 years in administration, so that gave me a good admin background. I was a tourism officer for a while, so that helped me out with finding accommodation for people. I owned my own restaurant for a while, so that helped me with cooking food for the group. 

“It was the best skill set that I could have had when I came into the job.”

Haslop said her desire to be as effective as possible as both a player and coach came from an early experience in her netballing career. On a bigger scale, her drive comes from simply trying to make sure others get the same sort of chances that sport has given her.

“I got great opportunities, travelled all round Australia, around the world, and to be able to give that opportunity to give that back to other people in the region is really what has been my inspiration,” she said.

“The biggest influence for me early on though  was to not make the first team that I missed out on. I can distinctly remember at Lithgow High School, I was in the F grade netball side.

“The teacher came to me and said ‘Good news, we’re going to have a G grade team,’ – I was a reserve for F grade. I ended up as a reserve for the G grade side. I was pretty useless. That drove me pretty hard, though.”

For someone who has worked as tirelessly as she has, Haslop is incredibly modest about the legacy she will leave.

“Somebody will come along and do the same thing,” she said. “We are interviewing at the moment for my replacement and should have an announcement soon. They’ll do the same job I did, I’m sure.”