{"id":124211,"date":"2025-09-06T23:11:21","date_gmt":"2025-09-06T23:11:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/124211\/"},"modified":"2025-09-06T23:11:21","modified_gmt":"2025-09-06T23:11:21","slug":"canberra-dad-named-australias-sports-father-of-the-year-for-bringing-blind-cricket-to-life","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/124211\/","title":{"rendered":"Canberra dad named Australia\u2019s ‘Sports Father of the Year’ for bringing blind cricket to life"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/p>\n

Jason Schmidt at his happiest \u2013 with a cricket bat in hand. Photo: Australian Fathering Awards.<\/p>\n

You\u2019d imagine cricket is a sport where it\u2019s somewhat critical to keep your eye on the ball.<\/p>\n

Not necessarily.<\/p>\n

This Father\u2019s Day, Jason Schmidt has received national recognition as \u2018Australian Sports Father of the Year\u2019 for his role in getting Blind Cricket ACT \u2013 a local club specialising in actual cricket games for blind and low-vision people \u2013 to where it is today.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve been president for Blind Cricket ACT here for the last five years; it\u2019s been all hands on deck to get it up and going,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

The club started with four members but has since grown to the point where it competes against similar clubs in other states and in the annual National Cricket Inclusion Championships (NCI).<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

One of Blind Cricket ACT\u2019s players during the 2025 National Cricket Inclusion Championships in Brisbane. Photo: Chris Hyde, Cricket Australia.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s essentially the same as mainstream cricket \u2013 it\u2019s the ball that\u2019s changed,\u201d Jason explains.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo it\u2019s a hard plastic ball with ball bearings in it, so it makes a really loud noise as it moves.\u201d<\/p>\n

It\u2019s enough to bring the joy of sports to people who otherwise wouldn\u2019t know it, even if it\u2019s still an uphill battle to spread the word.<\/p>\n

\u201cBlind cricket has always been on the fringes in Canberra, and for the most part, it\u2019s still a hard battle for us to get grounds and funding, but with each season, we\u2019re slowly picking away at things and getting closer,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve been doing a lot of stuff in the background, engaging with schools doing blind and low-vision sessions with students, and connecting with the community as much as we can to make sure there\u2019s awareness out there.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

An example of the ball used in Blind Cricket. Photo: Blind Cricket ACT, Facebook.<\/p>\n

Jason was among three men \u2013 and one organisation \u2013 to receive an Australian Fathering Award<\/a> during a ceremony in Sydney this week.<\/p>\n

Created in 1957, these annual awards aim to \u201ccelebrate and acknowledge the vital role that fathers play within families, and in the wider community\u201d by selecting Australian winners across four categories of Father of the Year, Community Father of the Year, Sports Father of the Year, and Best Workplace for Fathers.<\/p>\n

The awards were managed by The Shepherd Centre, in partnership with the Australian Father\u2019s Day Council, until 2021, when The Fathering Project took over.<\/p>\n

Previous recipients for Father of the Year include Jimmy Barnes, Hamish Blake and Dick Smith, while Adam Desmond<\/a> was last Year\u2019s Sports Father of the Year.<\/p>\n

Jason was \u201cvery surprised\u201d to receive the phone call.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was right on the back end of my taking a redundancy of my job \u2026 so it was an interesting mix of feelings going through that day.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Jason Schmidt with his son and two daughters (and, of course, the family dog). Photo: Australian Fathering Awards.<\/p>\n

He says it was being a father to three kids that \u201creally got me into this space\u201d of mentoring people with disabilities.<\/p>\n

\u201cI spent 15 years in supermarkets until I trained to be a teacher, but I couldn\u2019t quite figure out what I was looking for. My son Dave, who\u2019s now 18, started playing soccer, and I was coaching his soccer team, until he decided on cricket, and so it felt like every couple of years, I was just diving into each and every sport he jumped into.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd then the two girls came along, and I\u2019ve been coaching them.\u201d<\/p>\n

While none of his kids have disabilities, Jason worked with many who did during 10 years living in Tasmania, helping to run Special Olympics Australia.<\/p>\n

\u201cI also earned a bit of experience working with disabilities in high school \u2013 running lots of different kids programs and things like that \u2013 and I just fell in love with it,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere was a real appreciation from the kids that at times you don\u2019t get running kids\u2019 sports \u2013 when you\u2019re sort of always on the back foot with parents, or they\u2019re always expecting more or they\u2019re expecting this. They just appreciated everything that you had to give them.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Jason has coached all three of his children in various sports. Photo: Australian Fathering Awards.<\/p>\n

Using the recognition from his award, Jason hopes to raise $20,000 for Blind Cricket to get its own home ground here in the ACT.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re open to anything,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut we\u2019ve found that Hackett Oval is not used as often as other ones, but it could do with a bit of a touch-up, so we\u2019re looking to apply for grants to build up the ground and get our own container there so we can store all our equipment.\u201d<\/p>\n

Visit Cricket ACT<\/a> for more information on Blind Cricket ACT, or to join.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Jason Schmidt at his happiest \u2013 with a cricket bat in hand. Photo: Australian Fathering Awards. You\u2019d imagine…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":124212,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[564],"tags":[64,63,740,85],"class_list":["post-124211","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cricket","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-cricket","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/124211","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=124211"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/124211\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/124212"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=124211"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=124211"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=124211"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}