After the winter soccer season of 2022, Del was finally voted the Junior’s Footballer of the Year. He also scored the most goals, totaling 27, and took the Most Skilful Junior Player accolade.
To keep going with his football after the season, Del was invited to join the Ricki Herbert Advanced Talent Program. It was set over a period of 10 weeks, where they trained every fortnight on a Sunday. After that back to back matches were organised against Cambridge, who had a similar program ongoing for the same age group.
It was a bit of a challenge for Del, as the setup was significantly different, but importantly it introduced him to proper football playing principles. After the program was complete, some of the parents raised a concern over the distance we were to travel to Terangi for the sessions. So the junior coach, Dylan Morris proposed to split the groups into two, one for South Auckland and the other for North Auckland. The South Auckland group where Del belonged would train at Strathallen Karaka School.
After the summer program was complete, a proposal was put forward to put together a team to compete in the Winter Season Club competitions. By the time the proposal came forward , we had already registered Del for the Waiuku Club. And therefore did not take part in the formative for the team.
However a few days ago we received an email from one of the mothers , possibly the team managers, requesting that we consider Del to join the team. I followed up with a phone call to inquire a little more about. In principle the team was formed form all the 11 year olds attending Ricki Herbert Academy. The team will have a “professional coach” whatever that means to take them through the paces. The team is affiliated to Papatoetoes United. Registration for participation is through Papatoetoe. However the coach will require to be paid separately for his time and guidance. Training will still occur at Strahallen College, though the matches will be at Papatoetoe.
The team is calleed Strat Falcons.
After finally agreeing for Del to participate in the team, I had make a cancellation of his registration with Waiuku Football Club. Word went around fast and hsi coach for the previous two years, Stephen Maynard called to confirm the move. Explained to him and also the seccretary the reasons behind the move and the opportunity for Del to keep his football development progressing under a more competitive environment.
Exciting and challenging times ahead for Del.
