Wait and see for soccer progress
Stawell Soccer Club will face a two-week hiatus while club leaders visualise a way forward.
This came after Corangamite Lions Football Club announced teams would temporarily bow out from a South West Victoria Soccer Association competition.
Parents of Stawell Pioneers under-12 and 14 players decided it would be best to pause their involvement in the league while Victoria continued to grapple rising cases of COVID-19.
Pioneers coach Chris Sirre said the risk of COVID-19 transmission was too high to push on with a competition that required teams to travel to and from Victoria’s south coast.
“We asked the parents what they wanted to do and the majority had the same idea – to have a break,” he said.
“We are travelling into other areas and they are travelling up this way – we don’t want to be the club that brings the virus up here.”
Teams competed in round three at home against Warrnambool Wolves at the weekend, where under-12s fell 4-8 and under-14s, 1-9.
Sirre said both games were neck and neck leading up to half-time, but the Wolves scored an equaliser and got away from Pioneers.
He said despite the defeat he was seeing some promising signs of players developing closer as a team, especially with many new recruits.
“We have seen really great improvements along the way so far,” he said.
“Last year was our very first season. Some of the kids had never played soccer before. By the end of the season they were quite competitive. We have to build on that and keep going and I can see they’re giving it a good go.”
Sirre said leaders would reassess a way forward with competitions in two weeks.