It’s Sweet Futsal as Chicks with Balls head to Dunedin

It’s Sweet Futsal as Chicks with Balls head to Dunedin

7 February 2012, 10:22AM
Femme

Alive and kicking towards their 2012 Masters Games goal, a group of athletic(ish) Wakatipu women are headed to Dunedin next month to represent the valley in Futsal at the New Zealand Masters’ Games.

And while their Futsal (indoor football) skills are as yet largely unproven, the two teams will look stylish in gear provided by Queenstown’s new athletic clothing store Lululemon Athletica.

Bindy Crayford, the main organiser of both teams, says it all began when a handful of mothers decided to form a team themselves after years of supporting their kids from the sidelines.

“Many of us had never even kicked a ball or played a team sport and we discovered we loved it, even though we were completely useless at the beginning.   We asked football coach Phil Markham to give us a few pointers – those pointers turned into drills and training.  One of the mainstays of our teams, Haylee Roberts of Southern Fitness is a fabulous personal trainer and her significant contribution began when she started cajoling us into getting fit for play at early training sessions.

“That first year we had one team (with a lot of subs) which grew to four teams in the second year. After a LOT of help, regular training, and a couple of seasons playing Futsal and twilight football under our belts, we thought it time to check out the competition and see how we measured up.

Out of our four teams, we’ve put together and entered two teams into the Masters and have been training together for the last three months.

“We’ve got absolutely no clues at all about what competition we will face or how we’ll go, but I'm sure we'll have a great weekend away”
Although they’re yet to ‘bend it like Beckham’, the team has some good physical strengths and fun is the nature of the game.

“There are some really strong players amongst us and definitely some competitive natures,” says Crayford. “But more than anything, we just love playing. Learning to play a new sport at our age is a great way to increase fitness while still having fun, and the camaraderie of being in a team is fantastic.”

The  Masters' minimum age for women playing Futsal is just 25 which was a bit daunting for the original team whose ages  range from late 30’s – early 50’s.  So the mothers have roped in a few younger women from a teacher’s social team that entered the Twilight competition last season, to bring the average age down a touch.

The final teams, Chicks with Balls and Sweet Futsal, are extremely grateful for football training from top local coach Phil Markham, Queenstown Junior Football Club manager Damien Hochberg, the superb training skills provided by team member, Haylee Roberts, and uniforms from Lululemon Athletica.

“All of which has been provided freely.  We really really appreciate the generosity of people who are helping us,” says Crayford.

There have been some ups and downs over the past couple of years with several women injured while playing and others finding commitment to games and training a challenge.

“Our teams have taken some physical knocks including snapped Achilles’ tendons, torn hamstrings, sprained ankles and buckled knees.  We’re hoping the excellent physical training Haylee’s pushing us through is building the strength we need in our legs and hips to support the fast and hard nature of the sport.”

The teams compete in Dunedin over the weekend of February 11 and 12.

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