World Cup inspires a new breed of stars
STEPHANIE MUIR
23 Jun, 2010 12:00 AM
INSPIRED by the skill of Socceroos heroes, Riverina kids will pull on their soccer boots on Friday as they try to become the next Lucas Neill, Tim Cahill or Harry Kewell.
Mount Austin Public School will host a special seven-a-side soccer gala day on Friday to coincide with the World Cup in South Africa.
The driving force behind the carnival, Mount Austin teacher Sam Grey, yesterday declared the gala day would capitalise on the excitement of the World Cup and help encourage children to take an interest in playing the sport.
Uranquinty Public School, The Rock Public School, Tolland Public School and Ashmont Public School will contest the gala day with Mount Austin on Friday.
"These are all smaller schools that played in the Wagga 11-a-side competition but we all struggled to even find 11 kids that wanted to play or knew how to play," he said.
"It's not good for the kids to go and out and repeatedly suffer big losses.
"This gala day will be a good thing for us because it is giving the kids a chance to play together and to participate in a competition where the emphasis is on developing their skills and having fun."
Grey said the World Cup had inspired a surge of interest in soccer at Mount Austin, admitting it was difficult to select the final two teams for the gala day.
"We had a lot of kids come to the trials for both the year three/four team and five/six team," he said.
"It was very difficult to select the teams.
"Everyone that was selected has been training really hard at lunchtime and they are really working well as a team.
"They are passing, finishing things off and no one wants to sit on the sideline -they all want to get in and have a go."
With a heavy soccer background, Grey has always had enormous passion for soccer and a drive to build the sport in the city.
Along with organising the soccer gala day, Grey has been instrumental in organising a series of lessons for Mount Austin pupils that revolve around the World Cup.
"In all classes lessons have been influenced by the World Cup and we are really striving to build up the excitement," he said.
"In geography the kids have been focusing on the countries competing in the World Cup and learning about their leaders, languages and major attractions but it has also come into maths and English writing tasks."
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