Archie Visits Alstonville!

Yesterday Socceroo legend Archie Thompson conducted a masterclass training session for some lucky Villa FC Gr6/7 players.

This was all thanks to Gr7 Kestrals player Griffin, who won a Aldi MiniRoos trick shot competition.

Click below to read more and see the NBN news video segment.

2017 Presentations

PRESENTATION DETAILS

We invite all players, volunteers, sponsors and supporters to attend our end of year presentations to celebrate a great year of football here at Villa FC and for players to receive their trophies.

For great gift ideas for coaches and managers - there is Villa merchandise available at the canteens (ie: jackets, hats, hoodies, etc).

Gr6-11 PRESENTATION - Sat 16th Sept - 9:30am @ GW

Gr12-16 PRESENTATION - Sat 16th Sept - 11:30am @ GW

SENIOR PRESENTATION - Sat 7th Oct - 7:00pm @ ABC

NOTE: ALL TEAM GEAR TO BE RETURNED AT THE PRESENTATIONS.

This Weeks Games

Below are all the games being played by Villa FC teams this weekend. This is just an extract from the Sports Pulse draw (see link in 'Quick Links' on left).

2017 FFNC Awards Dinner

On Saturday night Football Far North Coast held their annual awards dinner.

Villa FC won some awards including some Fair Play Awards (lowest red/yellow cards) by our Womens Div4, Womens Div5 and Mens Div4 teams. Well done on a great result for these teams.

Also, our club President Pete Weingarth was honoured with a volunteer dedication award. Well done Pete on this well deserved award!

The club also had two players named in the Womens Premier team of the year, Erin Huntsman and Jessica Woolfe. Congratulations on this wonderful achievement!

It was a great night out with all the clubs having a chance to catch up with each other and celebrate football together.

2017 Pointscore Champions!

Congratulations to our Gr15/1st and Gr14/1st teams on becoming the 2017 Pointscore Champions for their divisions.

We also have 12 teams playing in finals this weekend as listed below. Good luck to all teams and enjoy the experience!

Last Games for the Season

Last weekend marked the last games of the regular season for our Gr12 to seniors teams.

While some teams will feature in finals others have now finished their season.

This was true for both of our Gr16 girls teams, the Red Devils and the Velocity, who played against each other in their final game.

The game was played in a great spirit and finished with a combined team photo. The final score was Villa 1 - Villa 0!

We hope all teams have enjoyed their football this season and good luck to those in finals!

Griffin Wins Archie Thompson Masterclass!

As you may know, Villa FC player Griffin has won an amazing prize by entering the Aldi MiniRoos NAB Trick Star competition with his amazing trick shot. See here for the article.

The prize is a masterclass session with Socceroos legend Archie Thompson for 20 players. Griffin's team, the Kestrals, will be participating along with some other lucky Gr6/7 Villa players.

The masterclass will take place on Tue 29 August, 1:30-3:30pm at GW. Feel free to come down and watch on as Archie puts our players through their paces.

Thanks to Griffin and his dad Duncan for this wonderful opportunity!

Newcastle Permanent Donation

This week the club was given a generous donation of $600 from Newcastle Permanent through their INTRODUCER program. Anyone who gets a loan through NP and mentions Villa, will get a donation sent to our club.

Thanks very much to Ballina Manager David Parker for attending our MiniRoos games and presenting the cheque. It is much appreciated!

Villa FC - OCEANIA CUP - 2017

We are excited to be running the Oceania Cup once again in 2017, 30 Sept/1 Oct (long weekend) here in beautiful Alstonville.

Click here to visit the Oceania Cup website for all the details.

2017 Carnival Success!

For our tireless volunteers, the day started at sunrise and ended at sunset.

For the 124 teams arriving from far and wide, everything was ready for a great day of football fun...

See NBN TV coverage below:

Good Sports Stories!!!

At Pottsville

Our 12yrs Girls Angels recently played at Pottsville. One of our players was injured (not through anything other than bad luck). We had no subs so were forced to play short. At this point we were leading the play 3 nil.

It was at this point as our player was being carried from the field (by some Pottsville supporters) that the young lady from the bench of the Pottsville team, without hesitation said 'we can help you out if you need. We can fill in for you'. This was so refreshing from the win at all cost world we find ourselves in. A case of kids just out to play soccer and have fun.

Thank you Pottsville! (from a Villa Parent)

At Lennox Head

A brief note regarding something that happened at a recent Gr12 B South game between the Alstonville Tarantulas and Lennox.

Mid way through the game a Villa player injured himself, the game was stopped and he opted to leave the field.

Without any prompting from the technical area, one of the Lennox players said “clap off the injured player guys” and the whole Lennox team promptly did so.

This was very impressive and unusual to witness, perhaps especially so as Lennox were so dominant in the game by then. I coach the Villa team but also have a Committee role in Wollongbar Alstonville Juniors rugby club, so I get to see a lot of kids sport! I still thought it worth giving back the positive feedback. More of it.

Thank you Lennox! (from a Villa Coach)

Next Session: Mon 4 Sept 2017 (LAST ONE)

This year we are continuing our special training sessions for keepers who are extra keen to improve. Matt Baker has generously offered to run these sessions once again.

The sessions run WEEKLY at CP - 5:30-6:00PM for Primary ages and 6:00-7:00PM for High School ages. If Crawford Park is closed due to wet weather then the sessions will be cancelled for that week. The keeper sessions are open to junior players from Gr10-16. There is no charge for these sessions. Details for the sessions are as follows:

Kids on Sideline Behaviour

Parents all want their children to shine on the sports field. Yet there’s nothing that will dull a child’s sparkle more than having parents and spectators pressure them from the sidelines.

It can be an easy trap to fall into as an adult. We go to adult sports events where the noise of the crowd masks all but the voices of those nearest us. We comment out loud at players’ performances, roar at mistakes, and vocally urge our favourites to do better and go harder.

We call it atmosphere.

But at a child’s sports event, we are likely to be one of only a few dozen spectators. When we scream instructions or yell in disgust, our child and other children on the field can hear every comment, and they know where it comes from.

Gold at the end of the Rainbow

The Gr10 Stingrays struck gold at training last week - capturing this rainbow landing on our clubhouse. Hopefully this is a sign of good things to come for Villa FC.

Dunoon United Achieves Level 2

Villa FC would like to congratulate Dunoon United FC on achieving Level 2 FFA Club Accreditation.

Dunoon are the second club in FFNC to achieve this great achievement (along with Villa FC). Well done Dunoon!

FFA Accreditation is not just a label, but indicates a club striving for best practice in all areas of it's running and policies.

See the Northern Star article here.

Silent Saturday - on TV

There have been some skeptics with the Northern NSW Football initiative "SILENT SATURDAY", but the proof is in the pudding with the kids enjoying a game of football without interruption from adults across our region last Saturday. And after all, it is the kids game.

Thanks so much to the 95% of parents, coaches and spectators from all clubs who gave Silent Saturday a go and saw the benefits. Hopefully we can all learn to "just let the kids play" every week. Please see the great NBN footage below.

7 Ways How Yelling at Officials is Hurting Children

There is an interesting article about yelling at referees that you can find on the 'Play by the Rules' website here.

Also, our club has a referee abuse code of behaviour and we would like all club members to become familiar with it and put into practice good behaviour towards all officials at all times.

You can find our Codes of Behaviour here.

SILENT Saturday

Northern NSW Football’s Silent Saturday initiative for 2017 will be conducted on Saturday May 27.

The message to all coaches, parents and spectators who will be attending ALDI MiniRoos (5-11s) matches on this day is to encourage you all to “Keep Quiet” and “Just let the kids play”.

TO ALL FFNC MEMBER CLUBS

Every season I am regretfully obliged to communicate with too many member clubs in regards to allegations of behaviour (whether words or actions) that are contrary to reasonable measure.

Our sport has close to 7000 players and by implication, many thousands of parents and supporters, so having a clear expectation that behaviour is always absolutely appropriate, is in reality flawed by many factors.

After several weeks of incidents that are very disappointing, I write to each member club primarily to give clarity and disclosure on a range of items to everyone at the same time.

Aldi MiniRoos Info

MiniRoos is now sponsored by Aldi. MiniRoos is the name for organised football played by Gr6-11 players (ie: ages 4-11).

For more info and for the rules (under club resources), click here.