By Glen Atwell
WHAT happens on a football trip is supposed to stay on a football trip, but somehow Justin Pearson’s nickname made it back.
The coach of the Pakenham Football Club reserves side said he was branded ‘The Judge’ on a trip to Tasmania one year, but never expected the name to return with him across Bass Strait.
“Everything stays on the trip except a good nickname, I think that’s what happened,” Pearson said.
The Judge didn’t spend years and years studying the judicial system to acquire his powerful nickname, but was instead given the honour in an instant.
“A group of us were sitting around trying to come up with nicknames to impress the girls.
“There was the doctor, the surgeon and somehow I ended up with the judge,” Pearson explained.
And before he could even enter a plea, The Judge had been handed a nickname life sentence.
But did it manage to impress the female contingent?
“I didn’t have a girlfriend at the time, from what I can remember it worked pretty well,” he recalled.
Pearson said that most people knew him as The Judge, a name that somehow managed to sound impressive.
“It’s a professional sounding nickname, everyone at the football club calls me judge, but mum still prefers Justin,” he said.