A SENSATIONAL effort from the Football Mid-North Coast under 13s team has seen them walk away undefeated from the Telstra Youth Challenge in Newcastle last weekend.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
In what as an identification tournament, the squad battled it out over three days with many other teams and walked away victorious in each match.
One of those victories was by two goals over the very talented emerging Newcastle Jets team.
The squad for the nationals are to be selected in the coming days from the tournament that featured teams from all the regional zones including Football Mid- North Coast, Northern Coast, Northern Inland and Far North Coast.
Technical director Larry Budgen, who will also coach the Northern NSW U13 country boys at nationals, was more than pleased with the effort of the boys.
“There were a lot of squads in the tournament. It was a fantastic effort from the kids,” he said.
“The national’s squad is named in the next few days and I’m hoping for six to seven players to be selected.”
Darrell Pascoe was the coach of the victorious under 13s team and said he couldn’t be more proud of his players.
“I’m absolutely stoked with how the kids went. They are a great bunch of kids who played some great football,” he said.
“I thought that every single one of our players put themselves out there for selection.
“They played exceptionally well and were very composed over all five games.”
It’s been a long road for a lot of the players who have put in the hard yards on the training paddock.
“Most of the kids have been working for this since October and many over a number of years,” he said.
“There has been a lot of effort put in and deserve every accolade they get.
“For 13-year-old boys they played well beyond their age.
“They should all be very proud of how they represented. I’d love to see all the boys get selected, they all deserve it and are a very talented group of players.”