AUSTRALIA’s best young touch footballers have played off for national titles in Coffs Harbour.
The city hosted the National Youth Championships for the second straight year, featuring over four big days of representative touch football at the C.ex Coffs International Stadium and surrounding fields.
The Coffs Coast hosted Australia’s premier youth touch football event, contested by the nation’s best young players across a unique mix of school, regional, and state representative teams.
Teams played off for national titles in eight divisions; boys and girls Under 12s, Under 14s, Under 16s, and Under 18s.
Coffs Coast’s best junior players were part of the Northern Eagles representative teams, as they took on other rep teams from across the country.
The Northern Eagles are a representative region which encompasses a large part of Northern NSW.
The Northern Eagles Under 16s Girls team were one of a record 125 teams to take part in this year’s Championships.
Coffs Coast players Kalani Grayson, Adelaide Keating, Isabel Kelly, and Layci Teale were part of the Eagles side.
Adelaide described what made the country’s top teams so hard to play against.
“They are just so strong, as they get to train together all the time, and they play with each other a lot which helps their teamwork,” she said.
Isabel said playing nationals at home had its advantages.
“It’s good because we don’t have to travel far and we can just go back home after each day and sleep in our own bed, and we have our family come and watch,” she said.
Team captain Audrey Hannaford from Gunnedah said it was her side’s mentality against the strong teams that pleased her the most.
“Probably just our attitude and not to give up, especially against the harder teams -considering how much they train together. It’s a very hard competition,” she said.
She explained the difficulties of players from such a large representative region coming together to train.
“We’ve got quite a vast distance, from Port Macquarie, Taree, Ballina, Grafton, Gunnedah, and Tamworth, and we go inland as well as along the coast,” she said.
“And we have very little training sessions just due to the vast distance, and it’s very hard for everyone to get there all at once due to the travel.”
By Aiden BURGESS
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