Abbotsford gearing for 50th anniversary
While multiculturalism is a hot topic of discussion in the wider community right now, Abbotsford Juniors Football Club doesn’t have a lot of time to talk about it. They are too busy living and breathing it every weekend.
Coach Matt Massasso took time out from wrangling the Under 7s boys team to revel in his club’s diversity.
“We’ve got a kaleidoscope of nationalities. It’s fantastic. A lot of second generation kids with parents and grandparents from different walks of life.”
Celebrating their 50th anniversary next month, Abbotsford have evolved from being a fledgling club made up of Australians of British descent and Italian migrants into a diverse community hub.
“We’ve got French, Italian, Portuguese, Argentinian, Afghani, Korean, Japanese, there are actually about 45 to 50 cultures represented here”, Club President Gilbert Lorquet said.
While Abbotsford has a handful of teams in finals contention, by any measure the club is a raging success. With 895 players in 69 teams from under 6s to over 45s, it has grown 58% in the last three years.
“We all had a serious think about what we were about and asked ourselves what do we represent? I think the common denominator was servicing the community”, Mr Lorquet explained.
Small-sided football (AIA Vitality MiniRoos) is allowing the club to develop not only in quantity but quality.
“Four-a-side on a mini-field is fantastic. You try to get the basics and the skills of passing and kicking down; developing that, performance will come. Small-sided, small goals, it’s good stuff”, coach Massasso said.
From a small number of females just a few years ago, women and girls now make up 43% of all players in the club, almost double the state average.
“We introduced women’s football about four years ago. We made it a policy to essentially cover costs. For two years women, as long as their sons or daughters or husbands were playing with the club, they were playing for free. That got them involved in the club and obviously word of mouth got around”, Mr Lorquet said.
While the statistics paint a picture of a burgeoning grassroots club, the numbers only tell part of the story. The reason why kids like to play football is best expressed by them;
“It’s a good sport and I like playing football with my friends”, Josh Izzard said and his teammate Aidan Youssef added; “I try to get the ball from people, to pass and try to score goals. It’s fun”.
As coach Massasso described it; “We’ve got 23 players in one team. The rules in under 7s are quite good because you have unlimited interchange. ‘As long as they sleep well at night’ is what we say”.
It’s expected those attending the Abbotsford Juniors Football Club 50th anniversary dinner, hosted by Fox Sports commentator Simon Hill on 11th September, will sleep well that night.
