I was fortunate enough to attend the Gala Day for the junior teams at Aurora Stadium today. The under 9’s, 10’s and 11’s played in some fairly wet weather – kinda normal for this time of year down here. I was worried that the ground would be closed after the rain we have had, however some modification to the boundaries ensured that the centre stayed damage free and all could proceed.
I was really impressed by the turn-out of both players and parents, and the quality of play was magnificent – sometimes you forget how young they really are when you see what they are doing out there. It is also encouraging to see a number of girls partaking in the competition, and I certainly hope this is encouraged and continues.
Our team (Longford under 11) unfortunately lost to Launceston, but at this age group it certainly is more about skill development and being a good sport rather than the result. Although the boys certainly do go hard at everything – they really want to win. This was the 6th time the two teams had played each other this year, with varying results throughout the year. It has all the makings of a good (hopefully friendly) rivalry as they go through the age groups.
For those that know young Jacob, we had a little issue with him being frustrated today. To other parents it possibly looked quite bad and that he is a bad sport, and I assure that this hasn’t been left alone. However I can’t express how proud I am of him for the effort he has put in this season. For a kid with Asperger’s he constantly amazes his doctors (and us) as to what he is capable of doing. Whilst we certainly hope that he continues working on his frustration, we thank all of his teammates for their patience and understanding.
ALSO a really big thankyou to Scotty for his efforts as coach. Quite often the coaches will receive a lot of criticism throughout a season, but at the end of the day they put a lot of their time into the role. Scotty has coached Jacob for the last cricket season and now this footy season – he has done wonders for the young fella. I certainly hope that he continues with both sports, otherwise it’ll be a loss to both teams.
I have put up a number of photos up from what I took below, however if anyone doesn’t want a photo displayed please let me know and I’ll remove it straight away. It is always a struggle now days to take photos of a kids sporting event as you don’t want people getting the wrong impression.
And lastly I look forward to next Sunday when the under 13 team run onto Aurora Stadium for their Grand Final. I hear that they will be playing Launceston after they defeated Prospect today.
Cheers
Chris
