With the All Whites' surprise World Cup success, it seems soccer awareness is on the rise. And kids and parents alike are loving it, writes Gill South.
Football not only provides constant movement on the field but teaches children teamwork and creates friendships.
For the first couple of weeks the football season felt unnatural. The sun shone, you had to put sunblock on. It just didn't feel right. But the weekend before Easter it all changed. When we came home from the morning of football, we had to wring the water out of not one, but two changes of clothes. There were hot chocolates all round and a race for the shower.
Going to kids' soccer in winter on Saturday mornings is often a chilly, damp experience, but it makes you value your nice, warm house, gives you a roaring appetite and gives you licence to yell at the top of your lungs when your children and their teams score or there is, to your mind, an unfair decision. It's a cathartic way to start the weekend, to work any frustrations out of the system from the week. Often dinner that night is a roast or meaty curry and a pudding to feed the hungry appetites fired up in the morning. Life has a reassuring routine.
It can be quite social. My kids' club in Mt Albert, Metro Football Club, has a prizegiving and drinks every Saturday night which you can go along to whether your child has won anything or not. For many local parents this is a regular fixture, a relaxed way to begin their Saturday nights.
Chances are, most Kiwi dads played rugby in their childhoods so those with keen footballer juniors in the family are educating themselves about the game. But these days plenty of parents would rather see our children play football than rugby because there is less contact and we'd like our kids intact at the end of their childhoods, thanks.
Football dad and former under 21 All Whites player, David White has encouraged both his boys to play football. The former goalkeeper, who coaches five kids' teams, and has played for Central United and now for Three Kings, says: "Soccer is easier to play compared with netball, hockey and rugby. It is a more natural thing to do. I think they can get great enjoyment and more freedom from it than any other sport.
"Any sort of moving around, running in a different direction - the more chance they have to practise these, the better, with today's sedentary lifestyle," he adds.
White, who is principal of Chaucer School in Blockhouse Bay, has set up two soccer teams at the primary school for these reasons. As someone with a long soccer career, the goalkeeper says: "The camaraderie of being in a team is amazing - the friends that I have made, experiences that I've had over the years are irreplaceable. The travel that I've done with coaching and players is huge."
Last year the Fifa World Cup in South Africa was a boost for New Zealand football with the All Whites' unexpected success. Ryan Nelsen's manly chest kept the mums happy and the heroics of Winston Reid and goalkeeper Mark Paston made for great drama and an unexpected pride in the national team.
Spurred on by the nation's new enthusiasm for football, New Zealand Football has launched the Whole of Football Plan - a national player development framework designed to cover all areas of the game, from volunteers, coaches and referees, to social and elite players. The focus is on community and recreational player development. The idea is to align all the football events going on around the country, to provide support for parent coaches, and make the game an enjoyable experience for every player no matter what their ability. The plan will be rolled out over the next six years with the junior framework piloted this season and fully implemented in 2012.
One of the attractions of the Whole of Football Plan is it makes it easy for coaches to train, letting the game be the teacher. It means you don't have to be an experienced footballer to understand the process of coaching and it's well within the realms of rugby dads and netball mums.
Metro Football Club in Mt Albert is adopting the plan. Junior/youth co-ordinator Antony Owens says the club wants to develop footballers who, no matter what their skill level, will continue playing the game into later life.
"Our aim is to develop the club with the basis of youth football, giving our juniors and youth players a well run club, with the ability to provide them with the pathway to becoming NRFL, ASB Premiership or All Whites of the future," he says. "The NZ Football WoFP has given the basis of a solid, and well-based framework with which our club can provide a previously unmatched level of interaction with a football for our younger players, and with this come players who are more comfortable on the ball, more confident in their ability and in turn have more fun playing football."
My sons play with huge enthusiasm but if I had a daughter I would hope she would be playing football, too. Girls have a choice of playing in all-girl teams or in mixed teams and have a well-marked pathway to the top if they're good enough. There's nothing better than watching a good girl player torment an all-boy team with her handy footwork.
A big boost for New Zealand girls' football was when the 2008 Fifa U-17 Women's World Cup was held here. It gave girls some role models such as Football Ferns Rosie White and Annalie Longo, who has has been to four Fifa World Cups.
Todd Robinson, the father of two football fanatics, Julia and Ryan, played football growing up and into his early 30s. He is one of thousands of volunteer parents coaching his kids' teams for the past few years. It's a family affair as mum Janice is a well-organised team manager and Todd's father also attends most of the games.
Julia, in her first year at intermediate, is playing another year in a mixed team though she had the option of a good all-girl team. There was still enough of a "competitive spirit" that it was worth continuing doing the mixed thing, says Todd. After playing in a football academy organised at Metro FC over the summer, she won a place in the second-best team in her grade. Todd has also organised for her to play in a tournament coming up soon.
According to Auckland Football federation CEO David Parker, girls represent 20 per cent of the football players from 5-year-olds to seniors. The best of the girls are playing in mixed teams until around 13. "If you want to learn, there are rewards and pathways, and you can go as far as you can go," he says.
Meanwhile, 30,000 kids are playing football every weekend all over Auckland from Papakura to Maraetai to Albany.
There are 20 football clubs on the Shore and a further 29 with junior divisions in the Auckland area.
"We've been growing at compounded rates of 3.5 per cent a year," says Parker. That means that 30,000 number could double in 15 to 20 years.
Rugby reckons it's growing well, too, he says. "We share a desire to get kids out and to be active. We recognise that we are not a physical contact sport in the same way the others are.
"In comparison to summer sports such as cricket, football is a quicker fix," says Parker.
Steven Dillon, football development officer at the Auckland Football Federation has a BA (Hons) Football Studies degree from Southampton's Solent University. The British-born football fanatic likes the simplicity of football: "All you need is a ball and a wall".
He says the social aspects of kids' football are important.
"The psychological benefits are massive, it relieves stresses from the week," he adds.
And clubs are looking for parents to be supportive to help with the process of their children's social development, not just their kids' development in football.
Dillon is convinced the skills learned at football are transferable. "Learning passing, working with others, these are traits that are going to be important in their home and social life. They will take these skills into real life," he says.
Paul Temple, football development officer of the Northern Football Federation, and head coach of the NZ women's under 17 team says,"The game ticks all the boxes for junior players. Players are getting exposed to a range of athletic tasks, co-ordinated movements, eye-foot co-ordinations. It's an athletically fast game and while rugby is played in straight lines, football is an invasion game.
"You can go from one end to the other really quickly; no matter what position you have access to the ball; but there's also teamwork, working together; it's quite easy to get success."
There's never a situation with football where, on a cold winter's day, your kids are standing on the field having not touched the ball for 20 minutes, points out Temple.
The coach enjoys the great diversity of cultures playing football in his patch - the North Shore and West Auckland. A number are from communities for whom football is the number one sport. African and South American families based in West Auckland bring their own flavour to the football there.
There is a minority of us parents who will yell out criticism to their children on the field and they are usually frowned on by the rest of the team.
"Ninety-five per cent of parents are really positive, they enjoy seeing their kids succeed," says Temple. The parents who are over the top, come from the football countries, where the game is their bread and water, says Temple. "It's often out of frustration with the New Zealand culture which they see as not understanding football. The majority of Kiwi parents enjoy the fact that it's something a bit different."
And if an hour on a Saturday morning isn't enough for your ball-mad youngster, the next big thing is Futsal. There is a growing movement in Auckland for the indoor game which began in Brazil.
Futsal is Fifa's only approved 5 v 5 indoor football which is essentially, a smaller version of outdoor soccer played indoors.
It involves a lot of touches with a small, low-bounce ball and is all about improving skills and technique faster, says Craig Empson, CEO of Auckland Futsal which is working with the NZ Football Futsal initiative to incorporate Futsal into football development.
Stars such as Lionel Messi and Ronaldinho swear by it, doing it in their youth before turning to the outdoor game, says Empson. Auckland Futsal organises futsal leagues on Sundays and some weekdays from venues all over Auckland. Saturday afternoons may happen soon, too.
"It is a guaranteed game which is indoor," says Empson. He has young Brazilian players coaching the children and professional umpires so parents can relax.
And as a parent with a limited number of raincoats, those indoor games have lots of appeal.
More detail
To find a club in your area, visit the following football organisations:
aucklandfootball.org.nz
northernfootball.org.nz
By clicking on the football link, you can find more information about soccer in your area.
