Soccer boasts 700 players: South West Games to host 70 teams from two states
BY PETER FLETCHER
SOCCER will kick off a week ahead of the South West Games in Warrnambool to accommodate a record field of teams.
Competition organiser John McMillan said soccer would be held over consecutive weekends for the first time.
Juniors are scheduled for Saturday, October 25 and Sunday, October 26 at Harris Street Reserve, followed by women on Saturday, November 1 and men on Sunday, November 2.
The games will be officially opened on Friday, October 31, ahead of two weeks of sporting competition.
Hosted by Warrnambool Wolves Soccer Club, the seven-a-side soccer competition has attracted 70 teams from across Victoria and South Australia.
McMillan estimates about 700 players will participate, which he says makes soccer the biggest sport of the games.
"That's not bad when we started off the smallest," he said, recalling the search for an opponent about 20 years ago when he first assembled a Warrnambool team to play at the games.
"People want something different and that's where we came up with the seven-a-side idea. It's just grown from there."
The South West Games soccer gained metropolitan media exposure about a decade ago and Melbourne teams have made the trip to Warrnambool ever since.
Others travel from Geelong, Ararat, Ballarat, Stawell, Mount Gambier, Horsham, Colac and Lara.
The Wolves are represented across all grades by 17 teams.
I was very proud of both our squads that participated in The South West Games.
It was our first real competition and provided a great chance to see how we have developed during the FUTSAL program.
Both sides were filled with under age players with players as young as 10 playing in our under 13 squad and only 2 boys in our under 15 squad.
The under 13 squad went through the entire day undefeated until they came across the home team Warrnambool Wolves in the final and went down 2 goals to 1.
The under 15s lost one game in the group stage and went on to reverse the result in the grand final defeating Horsham in the final on penalties.
Thank you to all players and parents for making it such a special day.
BY PETER FLETCHER
SOCCER will kick off a week ahead of the South West Games in Warrnambool to accommodate a record field of teams.
Competition organiser John McMillan said soccer would be held over consecutive weekends for the first time.
Juniors are scheduled for Saturday, October 25 and Sunday, October 26 at Harris Street Reserve, followed by women on Saturday, November 1 and men on Sunday, November 2.
The games will be officially opened on Friday, October 31, ahead of two weeks of sporting competition.
Hosted by Warrnambool Wolves Soccer Club, the seven-a-side soccer competition has attracted 70 teams from across Victoria and South Australia.
McMillan estimates about 700 players will participate, which he says makes soccer the biggest sport of the games.
"That's not bad when we started off the smallest," he said, recalling the search for an opponent about 20 years ago when he first assembled a Warrnambool team to play at the games.
"People want something different and that's where we came up with the seven-a-side idea. It's just grown from there."
The South West Games soccer gained metropolitan media exposure about a decade ago and Melbourne teams have made the trip to Warrnambool ever since.
Others travel from Geelong, Ararat, Ballarat, Stawell, Mount Gambier, Horsham, Colac and Lara.
The Wolves are represented across all grades by 17 teams.
I was very proud of both our squads that participated in The South West Games.
It was our first real competition and provided a great chance to see how we have developed during the FUTSAL program.
Both sides were filled with under age players with players as young as 10 playing in our under 13 squad and only 2 boys in our under 15 squad.
The under 13 squad went through the entire day undefeated until they came across the home team Warrnambool Wolves in the final and went down 2 goals to 1.
The under 15s lost one game in the group stage and went on to reverse the result in the grand final defeating Horsham in the final on penalties.
Thank you to all players and parents for making it such a special day.
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