Committee

/Committee
Committee 2024-10-15T03:56:20+00:00
Owen HarrisPresident
Owen grew up playing baseball in the Manly-Warringah area with a family name synonymous with baseball on the Northern Beaches. He has been the President since 2018, and the driving force behind the growth of the Club to one of the largest baseball clubs in NSW.

Owen has coached at Forest and Manly All Stars for a number of years, leading the Manly Junior League team to a Gold Medal at the State Titles in 2024. Owen also plays for Forest senior teams in both summer and winter competitions and sits on the Manly-Warringah District Baseball Association Board.

When he is not at the baseball grounds, Owen also…actually, no he’s always at baseball.

Renee PheganRegistrar
Renee (or Mrs P) has been involved with Forest Baseball for over 10 years, having been social media coordinator, scorer, manager and a current player in one of our senior teams. Renee has three boys at the club spread between Little League and adult baseball, making her the perfect person to advise on all levels of Forest age groups!

In her spare time ‘in-season’, Renee is responsible for the Manly-Warringah Junior Representative program, achieving record breaking results during the first season in charge, including two State Titles (Junior League and LLD2) and Manly’s 1st ever National title (Little League Div 2).

She is also the former Secretary of the Manly-Warringah District Baseball Association.

Administration level: Weapons Grade

John FarrantSecretary
John has been involved with the Forest club since 1985. That makes him…very old.

Prior to joining the Forest Committee in 2018, John spent 6 years as President of the Manly-Warringah Minor League (adults) competitions and sat on the Manly-Warringah District Baseball Association Board.

John’s role involves looking after club policy and administration, and he mixes it in with running school Tball sessions, running Try Baseball days, looking after club equipment and facilities, setting up fields, jumping in on the canteen and BBQ on game days, coaching baseball, coaching Tball, and sometimes he finds time to play seniors.

John lives to take minutes and document actions. He is ruthless in his enforcement of action items and prefers Arial font for all documents. He dislikes long meetings. He loves the colour green. He is a 2x Clubperson of the Year and claims to be the one that invented #bebetter. No-one questions it.

Jenny RussellTreasurer
Jenny was appointed club Treasurer in early 2018 and is responsible for all financial matters for Forest Baseball.

Jenny has been involved with the club for a number of years and has a black belt in financial ninja. A lady of very few words, she gets the job done, no mess, no fuss. Sometimes, you don’t even know she’s there. It’s a little scary.

Jenny has also been the driving force behind our massively successful Forest Futures program, ensuring our youngest and newest members are looked after.

With a field renewal taking place in Summer 2024/25, and a DA for lights on Aquatic 2/3/4/5 in the pipeline, Jenny’s job is currently to make sure the club finances are secure as we spend a summer away from Aquatic. Consequently, she would greatly appreciate you increasing slushie and sausage sandwich intake on game days.

Dave KruhakSponsorship Manager
Dave is a senior player and manager with the club and ‘probably’ the best junior assistant coach in baseball. When not playing and coaching, Dave is out looking for sponsors to help grow the club and fund facility and equipment upgrades for our players.

Unlimited enthusiasm, outstanding playing ability, superb coach and immaculately groomed – this guy may just be the perfect human specimen. Best not to stand next to him in photos.

John FarrantSenior Coordinator
John is also the Secretary, so you could just read the blurb above…but since you are still reading…

John is a former Forest junior and current senior player, with years of experience playing in summer, winter and Masters (over 35) competitions. Before joining the Forest committee, John was the President of the Manly-Warringah Minor League so is ideally placed to facilitate the progression of our current juniors through to our senior teams.

If you are 14 years or over and:
(a) a new player to the sport;
(b) a returning player coming back after a break; or
(c) an experienced player looking for a new team
then John has a team for you!

Shane CharmanUmpire coordinator
Shane is an experienced junior coach having taken the Manly Little League All Stars to a gold medal in 2024. However he also has in-depth experience administering other sports that shall remain nameless.

As our umpire coordinator, Shane has been instrumental in growing our junior umpire base and ensuring all Forest games are covered so parents can sit back, relax and enjoy their bacon and egg rolls on a Saturday.

Shane is a good bloke. We should all try to be more like Shane.

David PlayleGear and Uniform Coordinator
David is new to the committee in 2024/25. As such we don’t have enough background material to write anything witty. Yet.

As uniform and gear manager David is responsible for getting our players on the field, looking like ballers and playing with the best equipment available.

Joe WellerMWML (senior baseball) liaison
Joe has been actively involved with Forest Baseball Club for a number of years, both as a junior coach and a senior player and manager. His baseball knowledge is invaluable to the club, evidenced by him being recognised by his former club (Ryde Hawks) as their first ever inductee into their Baseball Hall of Fame.

Joe is the Vice President of MWML, the governing committee for senior non-representative baseball in Manly (park baseball). He spends an inordinate amount of time working on the baseball fields and is quite possibly the most valuable member of the entire MWDBA*.

Joe’s the sort of guy every club wishes they had. However he is not good at climbing ladders.

* The views expressed in this blurb are the opinion of the author.

Samantha Casper-RichardsonMedia Manager
Sam is in charge of Forest’s social media management, including round by round draw updates, game day pics, promotions and just generally keeping our members informed of what is going on.

A graphic designer by background, she is currently building up our database of photos and videos so that when the time is right to launch our brand globally, we will dominate with vivid greens and epic contrasts (I clearly have no idea what I’m writing here).

Key takeaway: If you see Sam – smile – she is going to make you / your child famous one day!