Steve Reid
STROKE SURVIVOR
THE TIGER’S GREATEST VICTORY
Every Tiger Starts Somewhere.
For Steve Reid, it began as it did for so many Boulder kids — growing up around the football club, dreaming of one day pulling on the famous black and gold. From the junior ranks through to Colts and eventually League football, Steve’s journey was one built on determination, friendship and a love of the game.
Along the way came plenty of achievements.
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Outstanding Young Footballer.
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Colts Runner-Up medallist.
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Vice-Captain of Boulder’s 1984 Colts Premiership team.
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And ultimately, League football for the club he had grown up supporting.
My coaches as a Junior in one word - "Brilliant" - Andrew Belotti - Bogga Burt - Richard Glowacki and Richard Holmes were all men that made a huge difference to my life.
But ask Steve today about those years and the medals are not necessarily what comes first.
Fan Card No 5
JUNE 2024 — LIFE CHANGED IN AN INSTANT
While travelling through Western Australia, Steve suffered a severe stroke.Suddenly, the man who had spent years running across football ovals could no longer stand.Doctors warned that he might never walk again.He might never work again.The simplest things most of us do without thinking had to be learned all over again.
Standing.Balancing.Walking.Climbing stairs.For four months Steve was in a wheelchair.He describes those early days with a remarkably simple observation:“You become a baby again.”But Steve refused to allow what he had lost to define what came next.Instead, recovery became his new competition.
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There was no scoreboard.
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No premiership cup waiting at the end.Just another attempt.
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Just another attempt.
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Another exercise.
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Another step.
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Another small victory.
The footballer was still there.
So too was the determination built over a lifetime.
Slowly, the impossible began becoming possible.
THEN CAME SOMETHING NOBODY EXPECTED
Ballroom dancing.For Steve, dancing became far more than learning a few steps.It challenged his balance.
For Steve, dancing became far more than learning a few steps.It challenged his balance.It improved his coordination.
It trained his brain and body to work together again.And perhaps just as importantly, it helped restore something a stroke can take away very quickly — confidence.Step by step, Steve rebuilt his life.Today he walks.He dances.He travels.He shares his experience. And his remarkable recovery has been recognised nationally by the Stroke Foundation, allowing his story to encourage others beginning battles of their own.The young Tiger who once measured success by making a team, winning a game or receiving a trophy now understands victory rather differently.
Perhaps that is the real story of Steve Reid.
Football didn't prepare him for a stroke.
But some of the qualities learned through football — persistence, mateship, resilience and refusing to give in — travelled with him long after he hung up the boots. Nearly half a century after that young Boulder boy first pulled on the black and gold, Steve faced an opponent unlike anything he had encountered on a football field.
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And he fought.
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One step at a time
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One day at a time
SOME VICTORIES ARE NEVER RECORDED ON A SCOREBOARD
For Steve Reid, this may be the greatest victory of them all.
