By Alessia Martin
Subject: “New Zealand Junior Futsal Nationals in Wellington.”
Dear student, You have been chosen to represent Westlake Girls in the Junior Nationals……
Nine girls were lucky enough to receive this email from coach Stuart. Westlake Girls had never entered a team in the Junior Futsal Nationals so everything was to play for and learn.
Some of you may not have even heard of Futsal! Think football but inside on a basketball court, with a small heavy ball and 5 players on each team, making for fast paced, fluid and fun play.
Wearing new Westlake sport uniforms, we all dodged the early morning Auckland traffic to arrive at the airport to start our adventure. Coach Stuart and Sports Director, Liz, had a fun vibe going as we flew into the Wellington cold.
Arriving at the stadium was really cool. It was professionally set up with teams from as far away as Dunedin.
Day 1 saw us on a steep learning curve against fierce competition from Wellington East College, Wellington Girls and Mt Albert Grammar. With a win and two close losses we put 16 goals into the back of the net and had heaps of fun doing it. After a full on day, Liz took us all out for dinner after a swim at the hotel.
After a great “recovery night” we geared up for the second day which saw us play against Bayfield College (twice) and New Plymouth Highschool. The highlight was a close fought 2-1 loss to Bayfield.
Although the results didn’t all go our way (we came 8th in the end) we learnt a huge amount about the game and had an absolute blast bonding with our team mates and representing Westlake on the National stage.
Can’t wait to take on Nationals next year with hopefully a Junior and Senior team from Westlake Girls.
Alessia is pictured on the right, back row.