A stalwart of Great Southern sport has received one of the region’s highest honours for his 50 years of tireless service to his local hockey club.

Ray Squibb has spent five decades serving the Tambellup Hockey Club, a feat recognised on May 18 when he was presented with the Great Southern service to sport award.

Lauded alongside Albany’s Darren Berry at the Mike Stidwell Medal presentation at the Albany Entertainment Centre, Mr Squibb said he was “totally surprised” to hear his name called.

“I look at the list of people who have won the award, and I also know people who haven’t won the award, and think ‘I’m not sure why they chose me’, but it was a great honour,” he said.

Joining the club as a player when he was about 13 years old, Mr Squibb said took on his first official role on the association committee when he was in his 20s, serving as secretary, president and a coach of both the senior and junior teams.

Now a life member, his main jobs these days consist of marking the ovals, working the bar, and “helping out around the place”.

“I probably do less now in reality than I’ve ever done, but it’s still good to be involved,” he said.

“In our little clubs, you just do what you need to do. There’s things to do and someone’s got to do it, so everybody just steps up and does things,” he said.

“It would fall over pretty quickly if we didn’t volunteer as we don’t have the money to pay people to do much.

You’d probably be horrified if you actually worked out how many hours we have volunteered, you’d probably be shocked, but that’s what we do and I’m very happy to keep doing it

The Shire of Broomehill-Tambellup took to Facebook to congratulate Mr Squibb on the “well-deserved recognition”.

“Ray has never sought acknowledgement for the countless hours he has dedicated to our community,” the post read.

“He simply gets on with the job, helps wherever he can, and makes a difference without expecting anything in return.

“That is what makes this recognition so special and so deserved.”

His whole family — including his daughter, former Hockeyroo Penny Squibb — have played at the club, with the social and strong community-minded atmosphere a key reason he has found it so easy to stick around.

“We’re very fortunate, our little club, everyone volunteers from 10-years-old and up,” he said.

“I think our club, particularly, has got a lot of volunteers, and the kids, particularly, want to volunteer.

“They all want to do something, so, I think hopefully, if what we, as parents and grandparents, have done motivates them to volunteer, we’ll be in a good place.”