Over the past few seasons, the Yass Touch Football scene has grown exponentially, and proof of that growth was on display last Sunday during the Southern Suns Junior Regional Championships held in Goulburn.
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With many hundreds of players in attendance, from age groups beginning at Under 10s Boys and Girls through to Under 18s, the Yass contingent was the second biggest present with 11 teams, only behind Wagga Wagga.
Yass Under 12s Boys coach, Ben Wylie, said that the tournament was a great learning curve for a number of reasons.
“A lot of them had only played the local level competitions before,” Wylie said.
“Wagga had two very highly impressive sides, and the Wollongong club was very good, so I think that exposure to a higher level of touch from kids their own age.
“Just that experience to see and to play against something of a level they want to try and be at as well.”
In recent years, the number of junior players has leaped from roughly 60 kids to over 200.
Wylie credits this surge to an increase in support from the local schools, and it meant that Yass was one of the few contingents at the Southern Suns tournament with at least one team in every age division.
“This massive growth in our own competition has progressed into the representative sides as well,” Wylie said.
The experience that the Yass players gained from the Southern Suns tournament will be crucial in the next few weeks, as they prepare for the Junior State Cup Southern Conference, which will take place in Wagga Wagga from February 22 to February 24.
The Junior State Cup is an even more expansive tournament than the Southern Suns, featuring teams from the Under 8s through to Under 18s, and has been touted in the past as one of the biggest junior sporting carnivals in the world.
It will be a step up for the Yass teams, even those who competed in the Southern Suns, and the experience that they have gained over the last week will be crucial in bolstering their chances in Wagga Wagga.
As the State Cup has experienced exponential growth in recent years, organisers divided it into northern and southern conferences, as “significant growth has seen the event outgrow any venue in which it could be held” according to the NSW Touch website.
This means that 439 teams will participate across both conferences this year, with the northern event to be held in Port Macquarie from February 15 to February 17.
Yass has entered three teams in the upcoming competition, in the Under 12 Boys, Under 18 Boys, and Under 18 Girls.