SUNRAYSIA could be a hidden gem when it comes to producing soccer talent.
That’s the view of Fulham United Football Club technical director Kevin Holohan, whose Adelaide-based club has already brought a number of young Sunraysia stars their program.
He also believes Adelaide’s rapid growth as a soccer hub makes it the ideal city for juniors to develop at a higher level.
Holohan was in Nichols Point on Friday conducting junior skills clinics with Sunraysia youngsters.
The Pointers have already built a strong connection with United with players Makenzie Holy, Neve Tingey and Maia Gowers all current members of the Under 17 girls side, while Mildura City’s Guiseppe Niutta plays for Under 16s.
Holohan is also aware of the hardships of travel to play sport, having to commute three hours from outside of Bunbury to play soccer in Perth as a youngster in his native Western Australia.
“My role at Fulham is as junior girls technical director and part of that includes reaching out and do some country sessions,” he said.
“We’ve got juniors girls coming to the club from as far as Port Lincoln, Whyalla, obviously Mildura and some girls from Mt Gambier as well.
“It’s really exciting because each of the coaches that work with those groups, we’ve set up a whole bunch of training programs with them and video links, just looking to give country kids an opportunity to develop their own skill set and hopefully go further.
“The club used to run sessions up in the Riverland in Renmark for 12 or 13 years and during that time, we had about 60 girls come through the program and of those I think six made state, one made SASI’s (South Australian Sports Institute) full-time program, and four of those girls are still playing WNPL in Adelaide.”
Holohan added that the upcoming FIFA Women’s World Cup in Australia has Adelaide abuzz and he hopes it leads to more girls coming through the ranks.
“Hopefully that’s a kickstarter for them to play at a higher level, especially in the atmosphere we’re in with the Women’s World Cup,” he said.
“I think for us in Adelaide, the general standard has really picked up, and we’ve seen a number of facility improvements and artificial pitches.
“I think you can even see that in some of the Young Matildas squads, a number of girls from there are from Adelaide originally, and same with the boys in the Joeys.”
“From here on in, I think it’s going to go gangbusters.”
