EPSOM Soccer Club will celebrate 40 years since its formation with a gala dinner in Bendigo this Saturday.
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Past and present players, committee and life members will be joined by supporters to celebrate the milestone at The Conservatory, All Seasons, from 7.30pm.
From its humble beginnings, Epsom now has 38 teams registered this Bendigo Amateur Soccer League season, ranging from under-six to senior men's and women's.
Club president Tony Hill said the Scorpions were proud of their achievements through the past 40 years and excited about what the future holds.
"When I first joined the club 16 years ago we were in Howard Street, where the shopping centre is - now we have one of the most modern facilities in the league, which we've worked tirelessly towards getting," he said.
"(The facilities)are the envy of every other club, but as we've always said, it's achievable by any club in Bendigo, it's just a lot of hard work and dedication from a lot of volunteers.
"We have a motto at the club - and have since I joined - that we are a 'family club' and that's exactly what we are.
"Whoever joins or comes in, they are part of the family.
"With 38 teams playing out of the club, we are really going ahead leaps and bounds."
With strong residential and business growth continuing in the Epsom region, Hill said it was conceivable the club would field more teams in the years ahead.
The Scorpions continue to make their presence felt in the BASL competition, with its senior women's and youth championship teams sitting atop the ladder, and the senior men's team overcoming a turbulent start to the season to be fourth and within striking distance of third.
"Starting from our juniors, we are in the top four with a few of our teams," he said.
"We've got two technical developers on-board now developing our under-sixers to under-10s, with foot skills and balls.
"We have a competitive technical director working with our junior teams.
"We're quite happy with what we are doing across all grades.
"Our head coach Ryan Pollard has done a great job with our senior men and so has Brenton Ellis with the women and Peter Raeburn with the youth.
"We have people, who we try and keep in roles for a couple of years for consistency, and we're quite chuffed with what they're doing."
The Scorpions finished last season as women's league champions and grand final winners, men's division Interleague Cup champions and grand final winners, and under-16, under-14 and under-12 league champions.
