ACT Under 13 Girls Finish A Terrific Nationals Campaign

The ACT Under 13 Girls Team had a terrific 2010 National Junior Championship campaign.

ACT Girls under-13 FFA National Championships Squad:
Hayley Armstrong, Emma Bestek, Freya Brent, Brigette Calabria, Caitlin Cantrill, Julia De Angelis, Jessica Giovinazzo, Mikaela Goldstein, Hiwot Johnstone, Ruth Kravis, Melissa Leary, Edwina Nelson, Siena Senatore, Madelyn Whittall, Phoebe Worth, Georgina Worth, Clea Porteous Borthwick, Hollie Massey (standby)



The team at the Burthurst Tournament prior to the Nationals - important preparation for the Nationals!

The ACT Team at the 2010 Nationals

They were placed in the much fancied Group A part of the Championship playing schedule. Every game was a hard game and presented new challenges to the girls. They played in good style and as a result produced very praiseworthy results - one win, three draws and one loss. Better still, they were judged (along with their Coach - Colin Jonstone) to have achieved second place in the much prized Technical Assessment score at the end of the competition in Group A.

Five ACT players were selected to play in the final game for the Group A AllStars. The ACT Coach was given the task of Coaching the Group A AllStars.

As they say "Mission Accomplished'!!!

A Master Class in Developing Young Players with a Good Junior Coach!

The FFA's new National Football Curriculum requires coaches at the Junior Football level to be focussed  on "development". A Junior coach who pursues "Winning" as the sole objective is of no use at all. If you sign up to coach  on the basis that you will "develop" players, you are certain to find it is a hard road - but stay with it and you will find it incredibly rewarding.

You will know from an earlier post that the NPL local has introduced the ACT Under 13 Girls team and they are currently preparing for the National Youth Championships to be held in the ACT in early April. They are coached by a highly experienced Junior Football Coach - Colin Johnstone. Colin works with the CF Technical Director (Ian Shaw) and the Coach of the ACTAS Women's Program and Coach of Canberra United (Ray Junna). Colin does fantastic work at Woden Valley Soccer Club, spending large amounts of time coaching the coaches. He has also coached ACT Futsal at the last Nationals. So the ACT U13 Girls are in good hands for their National Youth Chmpionship campaign.

A parent told me they were playing a game this weekend and why not come and have a look at how they going. I went and watched this ACT rep team play a training game against an ACT Boys  Selection (coached by Eddie Senatore) this morning at Kambah. Watching what they do is the acid test!

Well let me tell you, the girls are good. And the boys also played in good style. Both teams played 1-4-3-3, played out from the back and focussed on retaining possession. It was just as you would imagine a training game might be, with experienced coaches bringing the FFA  National Curriculum to life. If the "technical staff" at the FFA had been running the ruler over both coaches and players, I have no doubt the score woul dhave been high for compliance with the requirement of the FFA National Curriculum. And that is really important!

But I will focus on the ACT U13 Girls.

ACT Under 13 Girls Prepare for Nationals - and looking good! The Technical Revolution!

The National Youth Championships (NYC) are fast approaching for the Under 13 Girls and Boys age groups. They will be held in early April 2010. It will be important to keep an eye on the Capital Football website for the details. The NPL will post detials as soon as they become available. You wont want to miss this tournament!

The NYC for this age group will be held in the ACT. It was held at O'Connor fields last year for this age group - lets hope it's the AIS as for the recent NTC Challenge. If you managed to get to this event last year  you would know what terrific football is ahead. Changes trialled at the NTC Challenge will be employed in the NYC - see comments below.