JUNIOR footballers at Coffs United had an Easter surprise when 170 new football shirts arrived at the club for the new season which starts on Saturday 17 April.

The growth in football registrations with a surge in female football and the wear and tear of the old strips resulted in a shortfall of jersey’s so the club reached out to the local business community who came to the rescue as Coffs United President Jodi Wood explained.

“I am so proud to be giving all our junior competitive teams brand new strips this week in time for our first round of matches on Saturday 17 April.

“We have had our biggest year of registrations ever with growth in all age groups and especially with female players which has been a real focus area for our club.

“All these new players meant we needed more playing jerseys, we had extremely generous sponsors from our community support us this year and cannot thank them enough.

“Coffs Coast Isuzu, JZ concrete, Mid North Coast Physiotherapy and Kingdom Denture Clinic have all come onboard this season sponsoring the purchase of 10 brand new club strips.

“My boys Charlie and Riley were certainly pretty pumped to try on the new jerseys, with all this wet weather they just can’t wait to get back on a pitch and will proudly be wearing the new Coffs United shirt,” said Wood.

First Grade Coach Glen Williams praised the community support and told News Of The Area how the weather has wreaked havoc with their fixture schedule resulting in two matches to be played over two days this weekend.

“It’s fantastic to get this support from the local business community, there’s no better feeling to start a new season with a new jersey.

“The growth in female football has been a welcome surprise, so it’s great all the competitive age groups get a new shirt and I hope to see these juniors progress to the seniors over the years.

“Coffs Coast Isuzu have supported the club before and we are delighted they are supporting us again, I’m sure the kids can’t wait to get motoring, pardon the pun, and we also have three new awesome sponsors in JZ Concrete, Mid North Coast Physiotherapy and Kingdom Denture Clinic.

“It’s been a real frustrating preseason for us with the pitches being unplayable due to the rain and having to do preseason in joggers.

“First grade and reserve grade are raring to go on Saturday when we play our first match of the Coastal Premier League against the Northern Storm and after several postponements we are playing Byron Bay the following day in the third round of the FFA Cup.

“It’s not how we had planned it as they are two tough matches on consecutive days, but there’s nothing we can do, I hope we get a good crowd as the lads have been training hard – in their joggers,” said Williams.

 

By David WIGLEY