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A team of Hibiscus Coast U13 football players has come out champions – seeing out the season unbeaten and winning their league – after a somewhat shaky start.
Back in March, the Hibiscus Coast Football Club’s U13 A side participated in five pre-season AFF/NFF arranged grading games, believing that they would at best be placed into the top Metro league and at worst into the lower Conference league for the football season.
To their dismay, they were placed into the NFF 13th Grade 1st Division Championship league, which is one below the Conference league.
Deciding that the best way to overcome the disappointment was to maintain a positive attitude, train hard, score goals and win games, the team did just that. By making the twice- weekly training sessions focused and enjoyable, coach Mitchell Browne ensured that the team was brimming with confidence. As a result, they won seven and drew one of their next eight games in the 1st Division.
After seeing Coast totally dominate their league over the first half of the season and another side struggle in the Metro league, the AFF/NFF competition managers decided to create a 2-tier Conference league and placed Coast into the newly formed Conference B league in June for the second half of the football season.
Over the course of their next 10 games in the supposedly stronger league, Coast continued to dominate. The team won eight games and drew two, scoring 38 goals and conceding 11 to win the division.
Over the entire season of 18 games, Coast won 15 and drew three, scoring 86 goals and conceding 16. That’s an average of nearly five goals per game scored, and just less than one goal per game conceded.
Mitchell is rightly proud of the team that he only began coaching at the beginning of the season.
“Over the course of the season I have had the privilege of helping the team develop both their technical and tactical ability,” Mitchell says. “But perhaps the most important and rewarding factor for me has been the physical and mental shift towards becoming a stronger, more resilient and creative squad that just never stops fighting.”
