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Wanganui Marist FC

Wanganui Marist FC is an association football club in the Whanganui Region, New Zealand. Our home ground is Wembley Park, Wanganui. We are currently City Champions.

Colours: Green/White (Home) Orange (Away)

History:

The Club was first formed in 1929 under the presidency of Reverend Brother Harold of the Marist Brothers.Little is known of the Club’s activities in those days but it is known they supplied representative players regularly.The Club went into recess in the war years and reformed in 1953 under the presidency of Mr. E Spence. From 1954 – 1958 Mr. W McGuiness took over the presidency until being replaced by J.J.Maxwell.The Patrons of the Club in those days were the Reverend Parish Priest and the reverend Brothers who were stationed in Wanganui at the time.

In 1958 the secretary was Mr. P Hagenaars. This name has been part of Marist for the last 50 years with his brother Mr. Henk Hagenaars being a player and committee member and continues so today. Many Hagenaars boys have worn the famous green shirt of Marist. Henk’s wife, Trees, is a current committee member and her involvement with Club also goes back 50 years. She was a well known figure on the sidelines, particularly to referees of who many have been critiqued over the years. In a nice way. For many years the kits have been laundered by her good self as a donation to the Club and in 2000-2001 she made the teams kit for those years.

In the early 1980’s the Club purchased a Church Hall in Marton, all through fundraising, and transported it to its current place in Peat Street, Wanganui, across form Peat Park. Under the guidance of Bob Williams, Brian O’Donnell, Roly Taylor, Henk Hagenaars and other hardworking members this has become a successful meeting point for footballers over the years. Playing wise, from 1958 to the 1980’s there is little information available about Marist Football Club, but in 1992 after a drought of some time they won the Local League (known as the Super League then) playing in the distinctive Maroon shirts of that era.Since then there has always been a representation in the Local League and while the title has eluded them since most teams know they have been in a match when they have played Marist.

At the start of this century, the 'Athletic' was dropped from the club's name and we have remained Marist FC since that time.

Roly Taylor was the club's best known member. The amount of work for Marist and Wanganui football carried out by Roly over the years has been incredible and until just a few years before his death he could be seen on a Saturday morning with his line marker marking the Marist pitch. His years of service to the game (along with Henk Hagenaars) has seen them become life members of the Wanganui Soccer Association. The grandstand at Wembley Park is known as the Roly Taylor stand in honour of his sterling services to the game. Roly died in May 2011 and as well as many tributes in the local media and a packed funeral service, the greatest tribute was the minutes silence held before all junior and senior games the following Saturday.

Honours to 1958:

Association Shield     1938 Junior Shield          1932, 1935 McDonald Shield        1953 Hurley Cup             1953, 1956 Wes                    1953, 1956 Super League           1992 Local League           2010, 2011 Charity Cup Bowl       2005

Also to note in the 2008 season Daniel Horne was winner of the Golden Boot with 25 goals in the league.

Current Senior Officers:

President:          Sharn Taylor Vice President:     Wayne Ruscoe Secretary/Treasurer: Paul Maguire