Soccer: Stars of the future at Kaikohe cluster

Kaikohe has kicked off the hunt for our Mid North football stars by hosting the first Junior Mid North Soccer Cluster for the year.

With the Cluster being targeted at some of our region's youngest players, teams were made up of 5- to 8-year-olds and eased into football action on the day.

After a 10-minute warm-up which focused on skills out of the way, the keen footballers were given about an hour to show what they've got against kids in their age group.

Taking part last weekend were children and teams from Karetu, Paihia, Ohaeawai, Kaikohe and Russell.

Due to the success of the football cluster on the weekend and in the past, they will be held every weekend until the end of August with a welcome being extended to children between 5 and 8 years old.

For children between 5 and 6, the cost for the season will be $10 while for children between 7 and 8 it will cost $20.

This weekend sees Kaikohe's Lindvart Park host a Football Festival which kicks off at 9.30am.

The festival will be broken into two groups:

Group 1 will be a cluster with the 5- and 6-year-olds taking part in warm-up drills and games (Karetu, Paihia, Ohaeawai, Kaikohe and Russell kids).

Group 1 players are asked to register their attendance this week or at 9.20am at the latest in Kaikohe on the day.

Registrations are to done with your club co-ordinator.

Group 2 will be a rotation format for 7- and 8-year-olds which will see the group playing games only (Karetu, Paihia, Ohaeawai, Kaikohe, Kerikeri and Russell kids). These players are asked to register their attendance with Dave Alabaster at the Northern Football Federation by 5pm on Friday afternoon.