Football booming in Bankstown

Football continues to boom in Bankstown as we close in on the 2018 season.

The Bankstown District Amateur Football Association is the local area’s governing body and runs competitions for a wide range of players.

Men and women, young and old – there’s a club, a team and a competition open to new players in 2018.

Perhaps the biggest area of growth for the association will be in the women’s competitions, as the continued rise of elite women’s sport has filtered down to the grassroots level.

And with a strong number of female numbers registered last year, BDAFA Director Dimitri Hursalas says the Association is hoping to continue the strong growth in the women’s department.

“We had 1,000 ladies registered in 2017,” he said.

“The Association will be running a Women’s Football Week, which will include a free girls’ clinic on Thursday, March 8.”

The aim of the clinic is to encourage as many local girls as possible to come and try the sport, with local representatives from the Association’s clubs on hand to point those who are keen to take on the game more regularly in the direction of their local clubs

Of course, there are plenty of opportunities for boys too with the Association keen to drive more and more numbers into its Association-run Small Sided Football program.

“Small Sided Football starts from under-6 and is really the starting points for players coming into the sport at that age,” Hursalas said.

“A lot of our clubs now have their own Miniroos programs as well, which is aimed at brining kids into a local club setting at around the same age.”

And while the BDAFA is expecting more growth in playing numbers in 2018, Hursalas said the Association knew that to keep up with the demand for playing spots, it would also need to pour resources into coach education.

The Association boasts it’s own Coach Education Manager, Scott Belgre who is himself a Football Federation Australia accredited B-License coach.

“He is always motivated to get around the local clubs and help educate and assist as many coaches as possible,” Hurlsalas said.

“But on top of him we also have a number of grassroots coaching courses available for all our coaches to attend over the year.”

So far, the scheduled courses are set for March 19 and April 2, which are both Monday nights.

The courses run from 6:30pm – 9:30pm and act as an introduction to grassroots coaching and go a long way to helping the many volunteer coaches who work at a local level to understand how to put on more enjoyable – and educational – training sessions for their teams.

With so many clubs within the Association, any interested players looking to find their local club should head to the Association’s website: http://www.bdafa.com.au/clubs/ 

-By Matt Galea