Much of her voluntary support of the Rochester community has been done while avoiding the spotlight — until now.
Ms Keating is a finalist in the 2022 Victorian Sport Awards volunteer of the year award, recognised for her work with Rochester’s basketball association.
She has been nominated alongside Harry Saltis (taekwondo), Mark Goldspink (netball) and Sandra Klippel (swimming).
Ms Keating has lived in Rochester for 14 years, but her history of sporting involvement stretches back a generation to her father’s connection to football coaching.
John Fisher coached a variety of clubs, including, White Hills and Golden Square, while Ms Keating became heavily involved in netball, a connection she has maintained for more than 30 years.
The involvement of her talented sons in basketball has seen Ms Keating turn her attention to the sport, with both Harrison and Harvey having gained state selection. She can expect a long-term involvement with the sport as youngest son Archie rises through the ranks.
Ms Keating and her husband Matt have also been running the 15-room Rochester Motel for more than a decade.
Basketball is just one of many groups to benefit from Ms Keating’s ability to source support for the town during a difficult time and, before last year’s flood event, her ability to advocate for Rochester on a number of funding fronts.
Throughout 2022, she was the driving force behind Rochester Basketball Association’s flood recovery effort as the association’s secretary. She has recently stepped up and taken on the presidential role from Greg Tiller.
Typically, she was quick to push the names of Carly Powles, Monique Whitehead and Leigh Mundie into the limelight as her executive assistants.
She also paid tribute to the work of Mr Tiller, who will remain on the executive.
Ms Keating’s nomination included details of how she collaborated with Basketball Victoria and Goalrilla to secure an outdoor court to enable the town’s youth to continue playing basketball after the regular courts were damaged.
With the domestic season meant to begin right when the floods hit, Ms Keating and her team’s quick thinking and determination ensured Rochester was able to secure a venue at Kyabram for some smaller events and representative training.
There were a record number of nominations from the Victorian sporting community for the awards, which include individual and team athletes, coaches, officials, volunteers, administrators and media personnel from both metropolitan and regional areas.
The awards also recognise elite sportspeople who shone at national and international tournaments including the Commonwealth Games, Winter Olympics and Winter Paralympics.
Judging the 19 categories and more than 215 nominations from events of Victoria’s last calendar year were 39 highly qualified Victorian sports people, who were charged with selecting the finalists and eventual winners across the categories.
Judges included four-time Olympic marathoner Steve Moneghetti and head of female cricket at Cricket Victoria Sharelle McMahon, as well as chief executive officers from sporting organisations including the Victorian Institute of Sport's Anne Marie Harrison, Netball Victoria's Andrea Pearman, Bowls Victoria's Tony Sherwill and Disability Sport and Recreation Victoria's Liz Tesone.
The awards will be presented by the Victorian Government and Vicsport on Wednesday, June 7, in the Victory Room at Marvel Stadium.
The most prestigious award of the night, the state government outstanding contribution to Victorian sport award, will be bestowed to an individual for a lifelong commitment to sport in Victoria.
Previous recipient of this award include Richmond Football Club president Peggy O’Neal, sport administrator Malcolm Speed, Tour de France winner Cadel Evans and Olympic swimmer Nicole Livingstone.
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