7 young boys, all from the Byron Shire returned home from Sydney last week all smiles after convincing wins in 2 of their 3 games in their first NSW Futsal (indoor soccer) State Titles.

Young guns – Marc Starrett, Jarrah Hall-Hart, Ethan Archer, Callum Wilson, Kurt Ruehe, Zac Sezer & Riley Buckland all play for the Mullumbimby club and were selected into the Far North Coast regional squad. Although they are just 9 or 10 years old, the boys have been playing Representative Football and Beach Soccer together for 12 months. In that time they have been turning important heads with their incredible list of achievements in high level competitions. They were undefeated this season in their Representative Football competition and are the current U10 Gold Coast Beach Soccer Champions.

Team managers Renate Siewert and Clinton Hart said “until a few months ago most of the boys had never played Futsal. It is the fastest growing sport in the world played by 30 million people in 100 countries. They use a special low bounce ball on a basketball sized court with 5 players. It is so exciting to play or watch and fantastic for the kids as it develops their ball skills, demands quick reflexes, fast thinking and pinpoint passing.“

2 months ago Renate enlisted the help of Local Futsal champion 17 year old Tim Knight a student at Mullumbimby High School. He has been selected twice to play for Australian international squads and Renate thought Tim would be an ideal mentor and coach for the boys. It’s been a brilliant success and Tim has helped “fast track” their development. The boys beat 2 of the best regional teams at the State titles in Sydney by a massive 6-2 against the Blue Mountains team and winning 5-1 against Sydney Spirit. They were unlucky in their 3rd game, taking plenty of shots on goal however the local boys just couldn’t find the target and went down to finalists Barca 3-0. The boys have been training hard each Saturday and Sunday with Tim and the Far North Coast director of coaching – legendary (Vinnie) Vinicus De Carvalho Leite. Vinnie was a professional Brazilian Futsal player in the Brazilian National League and until coming to Australia earlier this year he was the Brazilian National junior coach.

While Tim and Vinnie were in Sydney coaching their junior teams, they were also both part of the incredibly talented open men’s FNC team that took out the silver medal at the State titles in Sydney.

10 year old Kurt Ruehe said “it was awesome having our FNC men’s team made up mostly of Brazilians cheering us, singing, blowing vuvuzelas and banging tambourine drums to support us when we played.” Goal keeper Marc Starrett said “it was a party atmosphere on the bus & playing in the big stadium in Sydney was great, we learnt so much about Futsal.”

The boys are so excited and have entered the Gold Coast Futsal Summer League to develop their skills further against the Queenslanders. In the first round at Beenleigh a week after returning from Sydney, they beat the Gold Coast 9-3 and in an exciting game lost to the Sunshine Coast 6-4 after being behind 3 nil at half time. In the second round on Saturday at Cornubia Stadium the boys beat Brisbane 4-3 in their opening game and trounced Brisbane 6-2 again later in the afternoon.

I think we will hear a lot more in the future about the FNC NSW Mini guns!

Rick Knight.