Winter is coming and with it comes the winter sports season. The community’s football club, Matamata Swifts, is currently in the midst of its preparations for the 2016 season, which will kick-off with a Football Open Day on Saturday March 5 at the Matamata Domain.
The Football Open Day is an invitation to the whole community to visit the Domain for a fun afternoon. It will be packed with interesting football-themed activities, including a cross bar challenge, a football skills course, a speed gun test, shoot-outs and more.
The Swifts’ Club Development Manager, Dwayne Barlow, says the club is promoting the Football Open Day as an opportunity for an enjoyable family afternoon out. “We’ll also have music, a coffee cart, giveaways, and mystery guests. The Swifts 1st and reserve teams will be playing pre-season friendlies so there will be some live footie on offer too,” said Barlow.
The Open Day starts at 1pm and will run until late afternoon. “We’re aware many people are involved in summer sports, so we want them to have the opportunity to be involved as well. I expect we’ll probably finish up at about 5pm if not later,” said Barlow. “We’re trying to give a little back to the community by putting on an event people will enjoy. There will be many people who don’t really know what we do, so it’s a chance to open ourselves up to the community. The Open Day’s for everyone, not just footballers.”
The region’s football Federation, WaiBOP Football, is right behind the event and will be providing full support. “WaiBOP is supplying some fun toys for us to play with on the day and they’re also putting on some coaching demonstrations,” explained Barlow.
“Of particular interest will be the Girls Only demo run by WaiBOP’s Women’s Football Development Officer, Holly Nixon. This season, for the first time, WaiBOP will be running girls only leagues so there’s the opportunity for girls to come to the open day, take part in Holly’s demo, and sign up to play if they like what they see.”
The club will be taking registrations from any players wanting to sign up for the 2016 season. “Our preference is that players register on-line this season,” says Barlow. “They can do that at our website – www.matamataswifts.com/register – but we’re more than happy to sign players up in person at the Open Day if that’s their preference.”
Details:
Football Open Day
Saturday March 5, 2016 from 1pm
Matamata Domain