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Although there remains some uncertainty around the exact practicalities of running tournaments in the red Covid setting, local football teams are optimistic and gearing up for a new season, three of which outline their hopes below.
Warkworth Senior mens team have started preseason training on Tuesday and Thursday evenings at 6.30pm at Shoesmith Domain. Coach Jacob Paul says they are always looking for players and anyone is welcome to the sessions.
“The more players we get, the more teams we can field, and we need to field more than one team,” he says.
Warkworth has lined up a series of preseason games, the first one of which will be this Saturday, February 19 against Albany at Westlake Boys High School in Forrest Hill. There will then be a match every week until the Easter break and the start of the season proper in May.
Paul says after two years of disruption due to lockdowns, they are determined to get plenty of games in early.“We didn’t finish the season last year, we had four or five games left when we were third in the sixth division,” he says.
“That was better than the previous season, where we only played five games in total. This year, we’re hoping for a full season, but we’re also not completely sure how things will go, so have booked six to eight preseason games.”
Paul has also just become coach of the Mahurangi College First XI, which he hopes will provide a spawning ground for future senior players.
“The whole idea is to show them that it’s not that scary going from grade or college soccer to seniors,” he says.
Matakana FC are hoping more teams will join their Rodney Otamatea Soccer Association (ROSA) Open Grade, which currently just has teams from Matakana, Warkworth and Wellsford competing.
“We call ourselves a serious social league – we aim to win,” he says. “We’re open grade, so age 15 to 65, and we’re always looking for additional players, as some of the older people do pick up injuries every now and again. In any single year, it’s so hard to get 11 people on the field in any given week.”
The team draws players from the wider Matakana area, including Whangaripo, Whangateau, Leigh, Pakiri, Omaha and Point Wells and trains on Wednesday nights at 6.30pm at Whangateau Domain.
When the season was halted last year, Wellsford were winning, Matakana were second and Warkworth third.
Meanwhile, coaches are needed to train young players in ROSA 6th grade and up, which attracts school-age teams from Wellsford, Matakana, Mangawhai and Kaipara for weekly matches at the Port Albert sports ground.
Wellsford Soccer Club’s Aaron Tipping says it’s more important than ever to make sure players are registered for the season.
“We can only make a team if we have got the numbers through registration. If we don’t have the registration numbers, we can’t create a team and we can’t have a competition,” he says.
“Kids need it after the last two years, for their mental health and physical activity. It’s a big thing to get them out and running around, seeing friends and enjoying life again.”
He says parents don’t have to be football experts to coach youngsters.
“At that age, it’s mostly getting them organised and making sure they have fun, then the actual coaching will develop from there. It can be as simple as kicking a ball at a cone to start with.”
Info and registration: wellsfordsoccerclub@gmail.com
