The Under 11 Joeys were coached by Peter Higgs who followed the core of the team up from under 9s in 2011.  The team competed in the Under 11 Joeys Central – North East – East League.  Kensington was the most western of the 16 teams in this league and travel was out as far as Croydon. 

Coach Peter said that the team had a great year mixing together several new players and a number of girls who were playing in their second and third years.  

The informal record for the year shows 13 wins, 3 losses and 2 draws (we think).

Season Highlights

There were lots of reasons to celebrate this year.  The bigger field  (and opposition teams) made us have to think about how to move the ball forward from the back of the field.  After a few games we played with a sweeper who was able to help in the midfield as well as the backline and made sure that we moved the ball forward quickly to our every dangerous wings and forwards.  There were lots of goals scored in most games and this made it really entertaining to watch from the sidelines.

Well done girls for being flexible and playing in a range of different positions across the backline, midfield and up front and especially taking turns to play in goal even when you did not want to do it.  This is the best way to learn the game.

Coach Peter says thanks for all your efforts at training on Thursday nights – even those freezing cold ones where it would have been easy to stay at home. It is the training that makes all the efforts on Sunday worthwhile. Everyone improved over the year and there were too many stand out performances to name them individually.

Parental involvement is crucial to making the year a successful one and this year everyone did their bit in helping to make sure the girls got to enjoy Sunday mornings playing soccer across Melbourne.  So thank you parents.

Coach Peter says it has been a great pleasure to have the chance to coach the players – some over the past two years.  Since almost all of players will also be able to play under 11s again next year come back ready and eager as ever.

Congratulations and thanks again girls for a great 2012.

And thank you to Coach Peter for the time and energy he has put into the team along with Managers Kriss McKie and Ann Houlihan.