Girls soccer team off to Raro
Twenty-two players and five adults will be travelling to Rarotonga for the First XI girls football tour next month.
The Tokoroa High School girl’s will be travelling to Rarotonga as part of a tour for a week to play games against Cook Island teams.
The girls will play three games throughout the week with their final game being against the Cook Island under 15 representative team.
The football tour was born a year ago when 50 Tokoroa High School girls were taken to watch the under 20’s football world cup in Hamilton.
Coach Dean Tereu said it was good for them to experience ‘‘Real football’’.
He said it made them ‘‘really super keen about soccer’’ and is what made them fall in love with the game.
A year 10 team member Madison Treadaway-hale said she was looking forward to playing against girls who’d played soccer their whole lives.
Strict rules were put in place including high attendance and academic performance which all of the girls met.
‘‘All of a sudden there were 25 girls turning up to soccer practice.’’
The fundraising started a year ago and financial targets were met with the support of the community and sponsors.
Each player was asked to get a $200 sponsor which Tereu said they achieved easily.
The total amount raised was just over $30,000 and that would cover everything including a lagoon cruise, Island night, food and travel.
The team also got new training gear and playing uniforms that were fundraised for so they were prepared for their games.
Tereu said all the hard work had now been done and the girls were counting down the days because they are so excited.
Team captain Anahera Hunapo-moetu said she couldn’t wait.
‘‘I feel proud as a female senior student to get this opportunity as girls don’t get much recognition as boys.’’
A full week has been organised for the girls to make sure they see and experience the Cook Islands as well as play football and meet new people.
Tereu said they were able ot do the trip because of the girls’ family links through the Cook Islands.
He said a few cook island girls will be going home for the first time which he said is really cool. Family violence Family violence has risen considerably in the last week with 30 reports made to police. Normally we sit between 14 and 20. Three of these were assaults, four were breaches of protection order, and three have resulted in arrests. Vandalism In recent weeks there has been a rise in minor vandalism around the town. This has included damage to letter boxes and gates Half of the incidents have happened in the Bed Rd area so if you do see anything please call us. Burglaries We had five burglaries for the week which is reasonably low for us. Two of the five we have known juvenile offenders for. People in rural communities need to also make sure they lock up and secure their motorbikes as they are the main target out there. Roads We had four vehicle collisions over the week. The bad weather is meant to hang around for another week or so so remember to drive to the conditions and watch out for flooding as it can come up very quickly, especially on rural roads and around bridges. To report road damage such as pot holes phone *555.