Junior Touch Football is booming all over the nation and in the New South Wales North Coastal town of Taree the growth and expansion of the sport has reached exceptional levels.
Taree has always been renowned as a great junior nursery for budding sporting stars with athletes of the ilk of Hockeyroo sisters Julie and Kristen Towers, Surf Lifesaving star Reen Corbett, Gymnast Nicole Alexander, and a host of Rugby League champions including NSW State of Origin Captain Danny Buderus and Manly flyer Chris Hicks emerging from the region in recent times.
The town are no slouches in the Touch Football stakes either, with 2007 Australian Women’s Open World Cup champion Kylie Hilder and former Youth World Cup star Anthony Avery learning their Touch Footy in Taree, and now lending their assistance to coach and mentor some of the town’s outstanding crop of junior players.
Three weeks ago 106 eager youngsters donned their lime green shirts and black caps to attend the “Blackest Cats” Junior Development Camp under the tutelage of some of Australia’s best coaches and marquee Open players.
The camp was another great stepping stone in the Club Taree Junior Development program that has been building steadily over the last five years under the guidance of an extremely dedicated and passionate Junior committee who have provided the opportunity for young people in the area to play Touch Football.
Taree Junior Touch Football Coordinator Terese Putan heads up an impressive group of locals who work tirelessly to allow the budding touch football champions of Taree the chance to participate in numerous local, New South Wales Touch Association (NSWTA) and Touch Football Australia (TFA) programs including the highly popular AusTouch program, the NSWTA Junior State Cup, and a well organized and successful local Junior Competition.
Taree Junior Touch has a proud history, having first been established under the guidance of Mick Callinan around 10 Years ago.
Mick was the heart and soul of the Taree juniors and worked selflessly for many years before convincing Terese Putan to get involved with the junior committee five years ago.
Terese took over as Junior Coordinator two years ago and has been working diligently to build on the foundation Mick Callinan had laid for the Junior competition all those years ago.
Taree Touch Association currently (TTA) has a hard working and dedicated junior committee that have worked together to make the 2007 season a great success.
The TTA Junior Committee consists of; Graham Goodwin (President) Terese Putan (Junior Coordinator), Narelle Salmon (Treasurer), Michelle Sleigh (Publicity Officer), Darren Rowsell (Referee Coordinator), Lyn Jones and Sally Murray (Canteen Supervisors), Craig Greenaway (AusTouch Coordinator), and Julie Rowsell and Graeme Pitman (Committee members).
Over the last two years Taree’s Junior competition has doubled team nominations with a total of 49 teams (443 players) nominating in under 9’s through to under 18’s and the rapid expansion shows no sign of slowing down.
Taree’s stellar progress can be attributed to a number of factors including their hard working committee, the adoption and consolidation of the TFA introductory AusTouch Program for Juniors, the participation of their youth teams at the NSWTA Junior State Cup and other tournaments, and the acquisition of a major sponsor in “Club Taree” who have pledged $ 25,000 over a three year arrangement.
The TTA are excited about their ever-expanding Junior program, particularly the growth of their younger age divisions in the 6-11 years age categories.
Terese Putan believes the TFA AusTouch program has played a pivotal role in the increased number of junior participants in the Taree Junior Competition.
“In July this year I attended the NSWTA State Conference and was inspired by Marianne Maguire, National Participation Manager for TFA to get the AusTouch program running for our juniors. With the backing of our committee, I set about getting it started. We had 12 leaders do the AusTouch Leader Training and Craig Greenaway then took over the running of the program.
Craig was so organised and had everything set up ready each week half an hour before the players arrived. On our first afternoon there would have been in excess of 500 people – kids and parents at the recreation grounds for the first time slot. The feedback from parents that attended that first afternoon was that it was the best-organised junior sport in our area and that other sporting groups could learn from us. This was just so positive to hear, being our first time of running the program,” Teresa said.
Prior to starting the Taree Junior competition season and AusTouch, Terese organised development assistance from the NSWTA with Hunter Western Development Officer Riley Sohier and local committee members conducting clinics and distributing flyers at five of Taree’s local schools.
Winter sports were also targeted and a local advertising campaign was undertaken.
Taree conducted the AusTouch program over 4 weeks starting on Monday the 3rd September with 7 leaders running the activities.
158 players (20 teams) aged 11 and under, took part in the AusTouch program and after the 4 weeks went straight into social game play for 10 weeks. The junior season concludes Monday 17th December 2007.
Taree wanted to target the beginner age divisions with the implementation of the AusTouch program to encourage junior participation and improve skill levels of players so that they could transition smoothly into the local competition.
Taree has also made huge leaps in terms of their representative pathways and tournament experiences.
Teams have been selected to play in all 10 available boys and girls age divisions at the 2008 NSWTA Junior State Cup, improving on the 6 teams Taree fielded just two years ago.
Taree Junior Representative teams have always been reasonably successful in the past with three teams annexing Junior State Cup crowns over the years.
The Boys 18's team won in 1999, the Girls 14’s won in 2003, the Girls 16 Years were runners up in 2004 and 2005, whilst the Boys 18 Years were joint winners in 2005.
Numerous Taree teams have played in and won the Plate Final division and most Taree combinations make it through to the quarterfinal stages of the showcase event every year.
In the NSWTA Open State Cup to be played this weekend 7, 8, 9 December 2008 in Port Macquarie, Taree will field an Under 20 Men’s, Under 20 Women’s, a 40s Men’s, and 50 Men’s team at the event.
Next year will see the addition of a Senior Mixed side in a clear indication that touch football is growing not just in junior ranks, but in adult competition as a sport of choice for the local community in Taree.
Taree have been proactive in chasing sponsorships to alleviate costs for their members, and wisely engaged Michelle Sleigh to fill a Publicity/sponsorship officer role for the TTA this year with almost immediate results.
Michelle sent out many letters seeking sponsorship from local businesses, with the main aim to provide new uniforms for all Taree’s representative players.
“Club Taree” responded, and were so impressed with the TTA’s hard working committee, and the way that Touch Football was growing and developing in the area, that they came on board as the principal sponsor of the Association and provided Taree with funding for 13 new sets of uniforms.
To further develop the Club Taree Junior representative squads Therese organised for the “Blackest Cats” to run a two-day development clinic on the 17 and 18 November 2008.
The "Blackest Cat" crew includes some of Australia’s best Touch football talents in Tony 'Tash' Eltakchi, Jason "Stanto" Stanton, Garry "GS7" Sonda, and National coaching identities Tony Trad, Ian Stanley and Karley Banks who shared their considerable knowledge and expertise with coaches and players over a high quality and fun-filled two days.
All players that attended the clinic received a lime green T-shirt, touch ball, Blackest Cat cap and a custom made lime green "Stanto" kit bag.
The Blackest Cats camp was the talk of the town with the professionalism and level of expertise on offer a huge bonus for local touch football enthusiasts.
The Blackest Cat presenters combined a unique mix of fitness, laughs, learning, skills, game play, and more laughs as Therese Putan explains.
“The players learned so much and had heaps of fun doing it. The smile on the faces of the players (and the Coaches) said it all. The skills and development the players received over the two days will stay with them forever and will only improve their ability as Touch players, and of course our chances at next year’s State Cup,” Terese said.
Terese was loath to spotlight any one contributor on the Taree committee who has enabled Taree Touch to excel on the junior sports fields this year, choosing instead to highlight the teamwork and passion displayed by all volunteers who make the Taree Touch Association the successful entity it is.
“All the Taree TAA junior committee work tirelessly to keep the juniors going, it all works so well because we all love the game and want to pass that passion onto our junior players. One day, it would be nice to see some of these juniors running the committee,” Terese said.
No doubt the cooperative environment and can-do attitude the current committee has cultivated will be a beacon for the future for the Taree Touch Association who will continue to set the pace for junior competitions the nation over.
