The Bertenshaw family continue to fly the Hawkesbury City FC flag

David Bertenshaw Field has overcome a few obstacles in recent years and its proud history will continue to grow for Hawkesbury City FC with the help of father-son duo David and Dean Bertenshaw.

The Hawks were founded in 1975 and previously played their matches in North Richmond; they moved to Richmond and eventually to the Bensons Lane Sporting Complex in the Richmond Lowlands in 1996, where they have played ever since.

The ground was renamed to David Bertenshaw Field in 2014 after the club’s first grade head coach Dean Bertenshaw’s father, Club President David, for his contributions to the local area.

The ground stood with no problems until February 2021 when horrific floods devastated the area and sent the ground, including the stadium, training pitches, sheds, completely underwater.

Speaking on the devastation in 2021, Dean Bertenshaw said it was hard to prepare because of how sudden it happened.

“We lost a lot in that one because it happened very quickly.”

Following that, other local clubs, the community, the local council, and Football NSW helped the Hawks rebuild their ground.

However, the worst was yet to come for the Hawks and their ground as it went under three times in 2022, once in February, once in March and then again later in the year.

“The second one we got very unlucky with; we had a good plan to get a lot of stuff out but the trucks that were going to get our shipping containers with our stuff up the road could not get down the road because it got too wet too quick.

“It was crumbling, so we could not risk the truck; so all we managed to do was pack our gear into shipping containers for it to flood the shipping containers.”

The club has remained resilient and after many years of damage, have completely regrown the field from scratch since December 2022; it is now in fit condition to play on.

“I think it will be an amazing field next year.”

Speaking on his father who has also been a volunteer in the community for many years, Dean spoke on the history of the renaming of the field to ‘David Bertenshaw Field’.

“He has been here since 1980 and has worked on the local sports facilities for as long as I can remember.

“This was his baby down here, so the council decided to name it after him.”

Born and raised in the area, having the field named after his father, Dean said it means a lot to him to have his father recognised for all the work he has done which is somewhat of a legacy that continues to grow.

“It is amazing, it is just rewards for all the volunteer hours he has put in… he is on call 24/7 to help out down here.

“His heart has been in the right place working for all the local sports; not just football, every sport.”

For the resilience to build back and move forward, Dean was proud of the whole community.

“To the group of people here that run the place, nothing is too hard.

“For instance our dugouts were built by our goalkeeper, Daniel Schwarzer, from scratch.

“That sums up everything you need to know about the place.”

The power of the community is shown by the numbers where they had over 750 people show up to their first match back at David Bertenshaw Field in 630 days earlier in the 2023 season when they hosted Parramatta FC in Round Six.

The crowds are a testament to the power of the people at the Hawks; a community club with a family history which is hoping to build on their history in the years to come.

By Football New South Wales League Two Men’s Writer, Dylan Costa @_dylancosta