Northland's secondary school students have come out in force to take part in one of the country's fastest-growing sports - futsal, Kamo High School's Jordan Heke seen here with the ball. Photo / File
Northland's secondary school students have come out in force to take part in one of the country's fastest-growing sports - futsal, Kamo High School's Jordan Heke seen here with the ball. Photo / File
It's hard to argue with the numbers and when it comes to futsal, the numbers paint a pretty clear picture.
As reported by RNZ a week ago in a piece which examined the history and proliferation of the five-a-side football hybrid sport, futsal participation has increased by over 350 percent since 2010.
There are now 28,000 players across the country in a sport which is emerging as one of the most popular competitive and social indoor sports across all ages.
As a keen fan of the sport and one who has played through high school in competitive and social leagues, there's a lot to like about futsal.
Otamatea High School's Emma Huband (with ball) was one of many girls to show their skills at Northland's secondary schools futsal competition in March. Photo / File
As a competitive sport, there is little to separate futsal from your more traditional codes. The game is fast-paced, very physical and requires an immense level of fitness. Most people with an interest in futsal will have played the more conventional 11-a-side game, which is much easier to hide in and even more so when it comes to catching your breath.
With only four players free to roam the court along with a goalkeeper, you are constantly on the move, needing to be ready to receive the ball at a moment's notice and to flick it on in another.
The indoor atmosphere does provide some challenges especially in those venues with poor ventilation. Anyone who has taken up an indoor sport will know the joys of running around in warm, stuffy arenas and the pain of crashing down on hardened floors as opposed to soft grass.
But as with codes like indoor netball, playing inside has undeniable benefits, especially when it comes to the social leagues. It means games can be played at any time, unhindered by inclement weather.
It also means directly after playing, teams don't have to trudge from the field to their cars for an unlikely reunion at the clubrooms and instead can enjoy the social benefits of the game, something highlighted by RNZ by showing the range of communities and ethnicities attracted to futsal.
Christian Reynolds sits amongst 21 rolls of flooring in May, which made up Northland's first purpose-built futsal surface at Excellere College in Whangārei. Photo / File.
The key for futsal and any of the indoor sports is facilities. While virtually any patch of grass can be converted into a suitable field for football or rugby, there are precious few facilities able to host a futsal game, let alone a number of leagues.
ASB Stadium in Whangārei is the main resource for Northland in that department and to its credit, hosts a number of different sports without excessive change or disruption.
However, if the region's sporting bodies want to take advantage of burgeoning sports like futsal, the development and/or upgrade of facilities is desperately needed.
The Northland Futsal Academy has noticed the surge in participation and has acted accordingly, laying the region's first purpose-built futsal flooring at Excellere College in June.
The reason academy director Christian Reynolds chose to invest in the cushioned, polyvinyl chloride sports flooring came from the difficulty of booking appropriate venues, but it's not just futsal which is suffering at the hands of limited resources.
In a brief trip back to his home town for some training clinics earlier in the year, basketball hall-of-famer Pero Cameron expressed his desire to see more indoor sports venues developed, citing futsal along with basketball and netball as codes which needed greater investment.
In spite of the limitations, Northland's teenage basketballers have thrived on the national stage with three age-group teams qualifying for nationals this year, the first time it has been achieved in a decade.
We all know about Northland's abundance of natural talent but if our sporting bodies want to become a Goliath on the national stage, we need to give our youngsters better arenas to do battle in.
