TWO exPakenham citizens will kick off in the Mid American Football League season this weekend.
Paul Drake from Pakenham will lead the Chicago Swans as they play as the away team against the Nashville Kangaroos. Officiating at the game will be Craig Warner, formerly from Pakenham, who has lived in Nashville since 1999.
Warner, a leveltwo umpire, will be well known by past players in the West Gippsland Football League and officiated with the Gippsland Umpires Association during the mid 1980s and 1990s. Both Warner and Drake are former Pakenham Lions players and students at Pakenham Secondary College.
Warner’s wife Debbie (nee Nooy) is involved in promoting netball as a sport in the US, being instrumental in the establishment of the Nashville Kangaroos netball club.