22 April update
Kia ora koutou juniors & families,
With a week and a half to go, here are a few reminders and further information about our season start.
Playing Gear
Uniform - 6-12th grade players need the AUFC uniform. Socks, shirt and shorts available from the gear shop at the clubrooms (see https://www.aucklandunitedfc.org.nz/shop for opening hours - the gear shop is open every afternoon next week from 4.30pm - 6pm). Note at this time there is only limited online stock for delivery, so it would be better to come to the gear shop in person to try on and purchase
Boots - there are a limited number available via the boot swap at the clubhouse
Shin pads - also a good idea
Teams & Team Whatsapp groups
Teams - all teams have been communicated to all grades via email. Please re-check your emails for team information, and join your team whatsapp group, as we will start to use the groups & communities more, to communicate to you on weekly playing schedules, any weather-related issues etc.
Any further questions please get in touch with your grade coordinator - their email details are on the website under Junior grade information.
There are still a few team movements especially in the 8th and 9th grade, where we have extremely full grades and a large of number of teams to manage due to the new 5x5 playing format as per WOF 2.0, so please bear with us as we finalise those teams, you may receive further team comms from your grade coordinator if teams change around.
Key dates:
Information evening and Gear pick up - CHANGED TO MONDAY 27th APRIL
5.30pm for 6-9th grade/6-7,8-9 girls
6.30pm for 10-12th grade/10-11 girls
We have Ben Sippola, our premier men’s coach and a great advocate for the game, leading our briefing sessions. Given the observed ANZAC day holiday as well as Ben’s training schedule, we feel Monday will be a better option to run these sessions. Please try and make this session if you can, at the clubrooms at Keith Hay Park.
4/5th grade - you do NOT need to attend the briefing. Look out for more information in your squad whatsapp group.
Only one person from each team needs to attend, to hear the coaches/game day leaders briefing, and pick up the gear bag. More than one of you is welcome if you want to attend. Teams will need to sign for their gear bag and the equipment in it.
The first playing day is Fri 1st May (8th/9th grade) and Sat 2nd May (other in-house grades). The weekly draw will be communicated via your team whatsapp groups, by the grade coordinator, and published on the AUFC website. This will generally occur on the Wednesday prior to the playing weekend.
Volunteers
We do rely on parents to volunteer for roles in their team, either game day leader (6th-9th grade), coach (10th-12th grade), or team manager (to coordinate players, pitch playing times etc). Our season subs do not cover coaches for the in-house programme. Please discuss within your team whatsapp group, where you might be able to share these roles around a few parents, as this provides the players with a wide range of different parents to engage with, and means that one person doesn’t get lumped with all the responsibilities for the team (unless of course they want to!)
8th-12th grades will also need to provide a referee for game day. Ideally each team referees one half of the match. NZ Football have made a new online learning platform available, for anyone to register for game day leader/referee courses for junior football:
Visit the NZF Learn site for more information: https://nzflearn.co.nz/home/
The Game Day Leader Award – For volunteers leading game day for 4–9-year olds.
https://nzflearn.co.nz/blog/events/game-day-leaders-award/
The Mini Football/Football Refereeing Award – For volunteers refereeing 9-13 year olds.
https://nzflearn.co.nz/blog/events/mini-football-futsal-referee-award/
Other Junior Playing Information
It’s a good idea to familiarise yourself and your players with the rules & playing format for your grade. Information can be found in the NZF junior football handbook:
NZF Junior football framework under WOF 2.0: https://www.nzfootball.co.nz/community/whole-of-football-2.0/resources
NRF Junior football handbook: https://www.nrf.org.nz/asset/downloadasset?id=b82f4c48-8814-4377-9364-87852cf0dc22
NZF are again also using CoachMate for coordinating activities appropriate for each grade. You are welcome to download and set up a team, and if you are a game day leader then activities can be found within the app as well: https://www.coachmate.sport/download-coachmate
A final note of thanks to our grade coordinator team of Gavin, Hayden, Jen, Saarah, Joseph, Donal, Olivia, Andrew and Adele. All of our team are volunteers, giving up their free time, and often at this time of year, their evenings and weekends, in order to make the season as streamlined as possible. Please be patient with us as we finalise teams and grades, we are all juggling our own jobs & families as well! We will endeavour to respond to inquiries and requests as soon as we can. With over 700 players and almost 100 teams in the junior in-house programme, I’m sure you can understand it’s a lot to keep track of :)
Thanks and we look forward to seeing you down at Keith Hay Park soon!
Stephen and the junior grade coordinator team
