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WA Local Given National Honour

Congratulations to Kim Holmes our latest Rob Hancock Memorial Award recipient. The Rob Hancock Memorial Award is given by the AFDA for most outstanding contributions to flying disc sports. Read more about the award here.

Many of you outside of WA and the disc golf community may not know Kim. Please read Kim's nomination below which gives you a great incite into one of the founding fathers of our sport in Australia. (article taken from the Australian Flying Disc Association).

Kim Holmes – A life in Disc Sports

In the beginning

During a shopping trip in the city as a teenager, Kim bought a Whammo Frisbee and remembers enjoying throwing it on the beach in Albany with his school mates. His main sporting passion was hockey however and he pursued this at the top level during his university studies in Perth. Kim first completed his Bachelor of Laws then a Diploma in Physical Education.

Introduced to the sport 1978

Lance Stracke, who was travelling across Australia on his Mormon year of service, brought to Perth an 8mm film of the 1977 world Frisbee disc championships in California, featuring the field events at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena. He was spreading a different kind of word, along with his faith, but screening the film everywhere he travelled.

The pivotal moment in Kim’s life occurred when he spied Lance Stracke’s notice about a screening of the film at the UWA campus and had his curiosity sparked.

Viewing the film, Kim was struck with the potential of this new sport and was one of a handful who met with Lance at James Oval, on the UWA campus on subsequent weekends. After Lance departed, the small group of enthusiasts continued to meet and became the WA Frisbee Club, which Kim was instrumental in forming.

The group played Ultimate, throw run catch and made an object golf course out of the trees that ringed the oval on campus. Even nearly 40 years later, Kim still has the occasional social round of disc golf with the friends from St Thomas Moore College that used to play on those Saturday mornings.

The early in-service courses 1978-1979 - Rob Hancock is introduced to the sport

Kim already had an association with the Superintendent of Physical Education in WA, Mr Len Pavey (who coincidentally is Mike Canci’s father in law) through some negotiations Kim had done to complete his Physical Education studies. Kim offered to share his passion for the sport by running in-service training for Physical Education teachers.

It was at one of these in-services in Tuart Hill that Rob Hancock, that a trainee Physical Education teacher at the time, attended with his brother.

Rob soon became more involved in the sport as the WA club became affiliated with the Australian Frisbee Disc Association and began running weekly club days at Perry Lakes. At this stage the sport was still very much inclusive of all disc events: from Ultimate, self-caught flight, accuracy, discathon and golf.

Kim also taught disc sports during the 1978 World Scout Jamboree held at Perry Lakes, and it was through this involvement he was able to secure 40 discs for the club to use in junior development.

In 1979 a distance competition was held on Heirisson Island which Kim won. He used the prize money from this to fund his trip to the national titles in Melbourne that year. At these titles he learned how he’d need to prepare if he was to compete at the highest level in the sport and went away determined to improve.

The early 1980’s and two trips to the World Championships

Working as a physical education teacher, the chronic arthritis that was to severely limit Kim’s sporting activities, had started to develop. Kim was forced to retire from Hockey, which was his primary competitive sport in those days, once the game switched to being played primarily on artificial turf.

Kim was transferred to teach in Carnarvon in 1980 and handed over the presidency of the club to Rob Hancock. In Carnarvon he founded the Ugly Duck Frisbee Club.

The first WA Frisbee championships was held at Perry Lakes in October 1980. Kim won the overall title for the event, beating Rob Hancock and a young Martin Adair. He returned to the National championships in Melbourne a much more complete player.

His performance in the National championships led to selection for the world championships in California. He attended the worlds in both 1980 and 1981.

The 1980’s. Cockman Kids and Australia’s 2nd Disc Golf Course.

Kim stayed involved in the sport throughout the 1980’s, although becoming more physically restricted in competition due to the arthritis that was affecting his knees and his hip. He served on committee with the WA Branch of the WA flying disc association with Mike Canci as president.

At this time the hub for Frisbee sports in WA was the Cockman Park Primary school oval and the adjacent Cockman Park. Local (Cockman Kids of which John Damiani was one) kids would play ultimate and field events. In the afternoons they’d play object golf around Cockman Park. Even now, you can see around Cockman Park, that most of the baskets are located next to large trees, which were the former targets.

Kim played a significant role in the collective effort by the then committee, in having a proposal for the installation of a permanent disc golf course in the park, accepted. He collected documentation about the successful installation of other courses around the world, including the many social benefits and submitted this to the Wanneroo Shire as part of a proposal.

The Rob Hancock Memorial Disc Golf course was successfully opened in 1989.

1990’s The Long Intermission

Kim was forced to change careers because of the degeneration of his knees and hips and became a lecturer in legal studies at TAFE. He eventually ceased playing all sport, mainly due to the pain in his hips. He continued to use the Rob Hancock course although in the late 1990’s and early 2000’s he was one of the very few using the course.

He organised family disc golf days and the occasional reunion of the same crew from St Thomas Moore College who he’d encouraged to come down to play on James Oval 20 years before.

2000’s The resurrection of disc golf and Kim’s new hip

Kim had a hip replacement in 2006 which greatly improved his quality of life. The extra mobility had him throwing discs down at Cockman park again and it was here that he came into contact with the new breed of disc golfers in WA, Kris Kohout, Stewart Adams and Dave Bandy, who went on to found the Perth Disc Golf Club.

In the ensuing years Kim has continued to assist with come and try days and school coaching from time to time, as well as being the unofficial PDGC club coach, taking many a new player through the basics to get them started.

Kim attended both the pro and amateur World Disc Golf championships in 2011 and has attended every World Amateur disc golf championships since. This coming June in Wisconsin USA will be his 9th world championships for disc sports.

He is a revered figure among the disc golf community in Australia, famous for his ‘pram’ which most of the youngsters playing the game gave not grown old enough to need to carry their discs yet. He also remains a very competitive player; regularly winning the masters division in local events, comfortable beating players 20 years his junior. He has also won the last 4 Rob Hancock Memorial tournaments. The Rob Hancock Memorial is a dedicated Masters tournament which everyone in WA over the age of 40 tries to win.

Kim Holmes RHA

Photo: Sam Hancock (Rob's father) and Kim Holmes

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