HISTORY will be made this weekend for the Swan Hill Soccer Club, who will field four teams in the Bendigo Amateur Soccer League for the first time.
The Swan Hill girls under-14 team debut tomorrow morning, joining the club’s under-16 boys team.
Prior to last season, the only teams the club entered into a BASL competition were the senior men’s and senior women’s.
The addition of the two junior teams over the past 12 months gives the Swans a fully-fledged pathway from junior soccer, all the way through to open age.
Swan Hill men’s coach Tony Di Palma told The Guardian it was a proud moment for a club that had been going from strength to strength in recent years.
“We focus a lot as a club on our junior program on a Saturday morning, which is great, but there comes a time when the kids need to take their games to another level,” Di Palma said.
“Now we have junior teams playing in BASL, it just makes the club look to the future in a different perspective.
“For the kids, playing in those competitions will be more of a learning experience.
“They’ll get to travel away to play against opponents that you wouldn’t necessarily know, in a similar fashion to our senior teams.
“I think it’s great that our kids have that opportunity now. It’s what we’ve always wanted and it’s great to see the direction the club is heading.”
The under-14 girls will travel to Woodend to face the Kyneton Rangers, while the under-16 boys face Strathdale SC in Bendigo.
Both senior teams also play away – the men facing off against Shepparton SC from 4pm tomorrow and the women playing Border Raiders FC in Moama at noon Sunday.
For Di Palma and the men’s team, tomorrow will pose another tough challenge.
A number of injuries to key players were set to leave the Swans undermanned for the next few games, last year’s leading goal scorer Conner Brown and defender Anyueer Buol both out for an extended period.
“We’ve got pretty good depth within our playing squad and I know there’s a number of guys who are ready to step up and play a role,” Di Palma said.
“We’ll miss Conner up front for sure, but it just gives an opportunity for someone else to step up and stake their claim up front.
“We’ll still be looking to take the game on and play attacking football, even with one of main attacking weapons not being there – we don’t want to play defensive and I think we just need to have the mindset for the first 10-15 minutes of just attacking the game and score that first goal to put our opposition on the back foot.”
While the men’s side will be playing just their second match of the season, having had the bye last weekend, the women will be playing their third, with Di Palma having stepped in to coach their 6-0 loss to Castlemaine Goldfields FC last Sunday.
While the result may not have gone their way, Di Palma was impressed by the effort and endeavour of the team against a much older and more experienced opponent.
“Regardless of the score, the girls played really well,” Di Palma said.
“They’re a very young group who are all developing together, but the signs are really, really positive – there is significant improvement among the group and if they stick together, the wins will start to come very soon.”
