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Last week the best young footballers from WA's Regional areas hit Perth for the Annual Country Camp sponsored by QBE Insurance . The best 65 boys and 15 girls from West Australia’s vast regions descended on Wesley College for the 2008 QBE Country Camp. The players were provided with top class training from some of the best junior coaches in the state, and were also educated on the right way to eat, train and improve their footballing skills.
Football West Education and Development Manager, Andrew Bettell was delighted with the camp and the standard of football shown by the youngsters. “It was a marvelous week and all the players enjoyed their time here in Perth, and went home better for the experience,” said Bettell. The players are watched around the state by a number of Football West appointed coaches who watch them in their local leagues and Bettell believes this will only make the state squads stronger in years to come. “We have spread our wings to the regions and this is benefiting the players and the state coaches here in Perth, and from last week we invited seven boys and five girls to join our State Camp this week which shows we are identifying players in the regions.” “It’s difficult for the players in the country who are not in strong leagues in their region, and when they reach under 14’s they are off the pace. But with the appointment of Regional Development Officers the quality of the country players has been improving and we’re now seeing benefits from the program,” explained Bettell. Players from the Country camp to be identified by the coaches were under 15’s boys Jake Smith, Seb Bell, Carlo Chellini (all South West regions) Aaron Rule (Albany) – Under 14’s boys Steven Byrne, Eric Deas (South West Region) Patrick Longbottom (Karratha). The girls identified from the camp were Tash Rigby (Margaret River), Dominique Fedele (Harvey) and Kathy Bogimule (Geraldton) in the under 15’s and Casey Webb and Kathleen Waycott (Both from Bunbury) in the under 17’s “Our Coaches in the regions are: Perry Krakowczyk (South West RDO,) Darren Young and Chris Ola (Metro RDO), Willie Devlin (Mid West Gascoyne RDO) and coaching coordinators, Andy Walsh (Albany), Randall Ford (Goldfields) and Mike Doyle (Broome) and all their hard work and diligence is paying dividends with the youngsters in the Country areas and we’re delighted with the up surge in interest we’ve had this year,” explained Bettell. Other coaches on hand to give expert training to the youngsters were former Sorrento and Singapore Premier League side Sengkang Punggol FC coach Trevor Morgan; Mark Lee; Kenny Lowe; Paul Wozny; Gareth Naven; Andrew Ord; David Butterfield, Dan Evans, Sean Darcy, goalkeeping Coach Phil Traianedes, Warren Grieves, Phil Butler, NTC Women’s coach: Nicola Williams, NTC Women’s Assistant coach: Tanya Oxtoby, and Scholarship Coach Elisa D’Ovidio. South West Regional Development Officer, Perry Krakowczyk said the interest in the game is growing in all areas. “We had Football West come down to Bunbury last year for a number of clinics and not many turned up for them. But we’re really optimistic this year, and we’ve had plenty of interest for our May and June coaching sessions,” said Krakowczyk. It’s been a stellar season for Football West and a number of their talented youngsters have been selected in National programs, with Cameron Edwards, Trent Sainsbury, Eli Babalj, Milljon Butshiire, Julius Davies, Josh Risdon, and Mark Birighitti all gaining National Underage representation. The ladies weren’t to be outdone with Ella Mastrantonio, Collette McCallum, Lisa DeVanna, Marianna Tabain, Samantha Kerr, Danielle Calautti, Sadie Lawrence, Shannon May, Elle Semmens and Jaymee Gibbons all being selected in Female National squads this season. The reputation of the youngsters in the state has been highlighted with good showings in the NTC tournaments last season, and this has led to Birighitti and Howard Fondyke being invited to the 2008 AIS program, while Reece Vittiglia, Liam Harvey and Mondrik Sims have been invited to trial this week.
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