Old tournament, new trophy

24th June 2010

THE glamour of winning a football trophy used to be the exclusive domain of Year 7/8 students in and around Kaponga. However, that’s all changed now thanks to the commissioning of a new trophy for younger football-players.
An inter-school soccer tournament has been running in west-central Taranaki for around 10 years and typically, the schools involved have produced Year 5/6 teams and Year 7/8 teams.
Yet, despite all teams working hard to win on the field, only the Year 7/8 teams got to play for a shiny, glorious trophy.
Now, after a decade of waiting, Year 5/6 competitors have a trophy of their own and the first winners of it were Kaponga Primary School; cleaning up in a penalty shootout against Manaia on June 3 on their home ground.
“It’s really a fun tournament for the students, with an emphasis on inclusion,” says Kaponga Primary sports coordinator, Rachael Gibbons.
“In each team, there are seven playing on the field. During a game, there must be at least three girls on the field at all times.”
Technically speaking, the tournament is for years 5-8, but occasionally, a little tacker from years 2-4 slips in to make up the numbers.
“We just like to see everybody enjoy playing the game,” says Rachael.