Junior Club in Focus - Streaky Bay

Football Federation SA has continued its involvement in regional areas by assisting a club in Streaky Bay who essentially does not have a competition in which to participate.

Western Eyre Peninsula District’s Paul Hodges regularly held training for a group of 6-12 primary school students outside of school hours at Streaky Bay Oval which led him to consider nominating a team for the SAPSASA State Carnival in Adelaide next week.

In order to successfully fill a team to compete in the Carnival, FFSA helped arrange a Schools 5-a-Side Gala day with primary schools from surrounding areas.

In all, around 200 students from seven schools including Streaky Bay Area School, Ceduna Area School, Crossways Lutheran School, Karcultaby Area School, Miltaburra Area School, Penong Primary School and Elliston Area School attended the Gala Day which doubled as Talent Identification for the prospective SAPSASA team.

A list of 30 players was eventually reduced to the 14 squad members that will represent Western Eyre Peninsula at the SAPSASA Carnival, with the team to be coached by Hodges.

FFSA Game Development Officer Scott Hockenhull was impressed with the turnout and buoyed by the interest football generated in the region.

“To come all the way out to the West Coast and establish an interest in soccer shows there is promise for the sport in SA,” he said.

“We’re competing with AFL in many areas of the state, especially in rural regions, so to see there is an interest in the game is great and it improves the chances of us running further events in the future.”

Hodges applauded the Gala day, labelling it a huge success and is eager to see future events held in the area.

“The day was a great success with over 200 children taking part,” he said.

“Many of the children had never played soccer before and weren’t quite sure what to expect.  However, they loved it and many of them came up to me at the end of the day and asked if we could do that again soon.”

The interest generated by the Gala day wasn’t limited to the SAPSASA Carnival side, with the Streaky Bay indoor soccer competition seeing an additional two teams enter.

“Another benefit of the Gala Day is the increased interest in our local Mixed Indoor Soccer competition,” said Hodges.

“We now have 2 teams made up entirely of Streaky Bay School kids and each team has a squad of about 10 players.  They play in an adult competition but are acquitting themselves well and improving all the time.”

“There is definitely a lot of interest in soccer on Western EP and with the support of FFSA, children are able to play and enjoy a sport, which is played by people in every country of the world.”

 

Each week we putting the spotlight on a Junior Club. If you are interested in having the focus put on your club, email info@ffsa.com.au