Tom Adam (2009) played in the midfield of Churchie’s First XI Football team for two years (2008 & 2009), including the first under the direction of Churchie’s current Director of Football, Derek Lennon. “My best football memory at Churchie was scoring my first (and possibly only) First XI goal against Brisbane Grammar at home on Smith Fields in Year 11 (2008)” recalls Tom.

The biggest influence on his football career has been his Dad, who was always there throughout his sport involvement. With a shared passion for the game it was during the football season that they most enjoyed themselves, which included watching the English Premier League highlight shows on SBS every Monday night during the season.

Straight after school, as he wasn’t sure what he wanted to do, Tom took a gap year to the UK.  He worked at a high school and was lucky enough to travel Europe in the school holidays. In 2011, he returned to Brisbane and started a journalism degree at the University of Queensland while playing for Eastern Suburbs FC on the side. He later relocated to University of Canberra to take on a Sports Media degree and play two seasons with Canberra Olympic FC. Once he graduated, Tom landed his first industry job working for the local newspaper as a sports reporter in Mount Isa. After six months there, which included trying his hand at Australian Rules football, Tom found himself driving to Bundaberg. For nearly two years he worked at WIN News TV as the Wide Bay sports reporter and joined Across The Waves FC where he enjoyed one of the best club seasons. Looking for a new challenge, he moved to Toowoomba with WIN News and lived there for nine months playing half a season with University of Southern Queensland. Still with WIN, he received an opportunity to move to the Sunshine Coast (where his Mum is based) and joined Maroochydore Swans FC. In May 2019, a leap of faith saw Tom moving to London where, despite a slow start, he was fortunate to score a short-term contract with a sport digital agency covering the 2019 Rugby World Cup in Japan. That has now turned into a permanent position and one of his current projects consists of being part of a small team in control of the social media content for the A-League, W-League, and E-League channels. Tom says “Considering my long term plan is to be involved in the football industry in some way, I think this is a pretty good start!”