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Warkworth FC is fielding 13 junior football teams this season with around 100 players.
Coordinator Arthur Waddell says the U14 team is playing in division one and is aiming to win that league, with a view to go on to conference next season.
Meanwhile, the 10th grade Warkworth Lighting team hasn’t lost a game this season, beating out Hibiscus Coast, Glenfield, East Coast Bays, Birkenhead and North Shore.
Waddell says the intention is to take a team of players from both the 10th grade Lightning and Thunder teams – dubbed Warkworth Storm – to Northern Football Federation (NFF) tournament in Albany in late July.
The format of the game remains the same, but Waddell says kids and coaches are still getting used to NFF’s ‘retreating line’ rule that requires the ball to be passed out from a goalie to defenders rather being kicked to the centre.
He says there is plenty of burgeoning talent in the club including serial goal scorer Tai Johnson and part time goalie, part time attacker Dillon Genet.
“With the right coaching and environment, as long as we can keep these kids’ feet on the ground, they could go on to play to a very high standard.”
“I once had a mother ask me ‘why would I want my kid to play football’. I said John Terry earns $200,000 a week playing for Chelsea, and it all starts with kids knocking around a ball on a field on a Saturday morning at Shoesmith.”
