The top youngsters of the Limestone Coast Football Association strutted their stuff alongside some of the most promising players in South Australia at the State Development Camp in Adelaide last weekend.
The program run by Football SA is an intense multi-day affair held at the Centre of Football which put juniors through their paces sorting out the best from the best.
The LCFA was represented by a strong contingent throughout the grades ranging from Under 12’s to 15’s in both boys and girls.
All LCFA Select squad players from the Under 13, 14 and 15 grades participated, while Solomon Htoo, Noah Corfield, Will Dower, Sebastian Morello, Jamison Howley, Cody Beimans, Esaie Kulimushi, Flynn Gray, Jai Hillstone, Thomas Damhuis and Joe McCrorie were the boys having a crack.
LCFA CEO Chris Fleetwood was also in attendance, but as a coach implementing the top-level drills and games.
Despite having watched many kids take part, Fleetwood said the South East stars ensured they were at the front of mind.
“From all the regional kids that I saw, our kids were certainly amongst the best,” he said.
“Basically the best kids from all over the state were competing against each other, so there were hundreds of boys there and the standard was very high.
“The boys played games from around 2pm in the afternoon to around 8pm at night across three straight days on artificial turf.
“So lots of games and lots of opportunities, so it would have been a great experience.”
Although the state regional squads are yet to be announced, Fleetwood said there would be Limestone Coast representation.
“I had the Under 13, 14 and 15 players and we had nearly 40 regional kids and had to choose around 13-15 so quite a lot of girls missed out,” he said.
“We already had a number of girls already selected in the Under 11 and 12 state carnival squads directly from the June carnival.
“But now we will have girls representing the Under 11, 12, 13, 14 and 15 teams at the state championships, which will be the big test when they play against the metropolitan kids.”
Fleetwood also revealed high-level camps like this will be coming to the Limestone Coast with he first of hopefully many programs taking place this October.
“Football SA has a new technical director called Michael Cooper and he is really interested in developing some programs in Mount Gambier,” he said.
“One of the things that will be happening is that we will be running a camp in the October school holidays and we will have state coaches coming down.
“There will be different sessions for different kids from Mini Roos up to Under 14’s and we hope to have one every school holidays to give them a more of a relaxed option and create more opportunities.”
The Limestone Coast kids selected in the state regional squads following the development camp held in Adelaide will be anncounced this week.
Those picked will be treated to special training sessions run by Fleetwood each Wednesday night to ensure they are ready to unleash their best by October.
