“Ladies and Gentlemen, Supporters and Participants;
The Red Hot Tunas 2006, they don’t look it but; they are a tough little bunch of footballers.
It’s been my privilege and pleasure to be involved with this team for a number of years now and I am pleased to say that it gets better and more exciting every year.
This team, the players, the families, caretakers and supporters alike deserve all the accolades you have heard and read about over the last season, there has been so much enthusiasm and enjoyment for the games and our training sessions about, which I believe to be unparalleled. This has made my involvement and that of my fellow coaches all the more rewarding and it has given us the energy to push this little bit further, try more different things and take this little bit extra time for the team .
Let’s take a brief look back to last year. These guys here had only just evolved form midgety tadpoles to Red Herrings and when we started our grading round we were pushed and bullied around quite a bit. As we progressed, as a team, we found a lot of resolve and our results picked up. We improved on a weekly basis and in the end we played exiting, fast, furious and attractive football, good enough to win a very competitive 7th grade 4th division. The parents, families and friends unanimously enjoyed the season and there were many disappointed faces once the final whistle blew goodbye to the 2005 season.
When we congregated again for the 2006 season we all felt we had further evolved; we now wanted to be known as the Red Hot Tunas. From the first training session onward the enthusiasm and commitment was back; players and families were so obviously happy to be back, it was an unbelievable pleasure for me to kick off the first training of the year.
Kurt Binder and Grant Keen, both exquisite footballers in their own time, were all too happy to chip in and help me with our training sessions. Luke Taylor a 12th grade player and Gavin Speight joined us to provide a competitive challenge during our training games. All parents, one way or another helped out, be it in setting up the pitch, packing up or looking after the ‘injured’, everyone was involved and, training or game time, I always felt people genuinely wanted to be there, which was really great.
If there was proof needed concerning the team’s and the parent’s unreserved desire to be part of this Red Hot Tunas team, well, rest assured, the numerous training sessions in near, or complete darkness on Thursday nights, the time slot between daylight and the senior teams (under light), the lonely training sessions during school holidays on deserted grounds (yep, still in the dark), the impromptu ‘Tunas vs. Supporters’ game when the opposition defaulted and our standing invitation to other 8th and 9th grade teams to join us for a practise game all kind of hinted toward the same thing; WE WERE HAVING FUN!
I am a coach, I am passionate about what I do, for a living and/or for pleasure, there is a lot of passion and, to add to that, I am of the yelling kind (I know, the mind boggles). This can be a difficult mix to deal with but, these Tunas and their families, they have learnt to endure me and I am thankful for that. In other quarters it has raised consternation, concern and, in one isolated case, annoyance, all of which, in return, has only added to the entertainment value of our games as far as we were concerned.
In our grading round we were pitched against teams from last year’s third, second and first division and we finished up wining the grading round with all but one game ending victorious. The only loss in our grading round was against another Puke side, The Green Machine, who, with us, was also promoted into the 1st division. As a coach I was absolutely stoked to see the progress in our team, and, what I enjoyed most was the fact that we did lift our performance from game to game as a team.
When we started our journey into division one, we talked about the fact that we wouldn’t continue winning every game and that we wanted to make sure to take good things out of any and all games, regardless of the results. Well, let me tell you; YES, we didn’t win all of our games, but, YES, we did take plenty of good things out of every game, we were never thrashed, our biggest losing margin was by three goals and, we all agreed, we had an off day. We lost three games in the first division 2:1 and on every occasion, with fate leaning our way, we could have won these games. This is what has stood out for me this year, this team; the Red Hot Tunas have, as a team, been incredibly consistent, for players of this age, one has to respect the maturity beyond their years. You see, we actually scored more goals in division one than we did during the grading rounds (same amount of games), I checked, only one other team achieved this.
The team’s responsiveness to my, and the other coaches, ideas and requests, in terms of tactical play, has been commendable, the support and trust from parents and caretakers has been encouraging and warmly appreciated, you know, when the yelling kind get going, tears are sometimes not far away, but, as a team we managed to deal with that too.
I want to highlight the fact that there were actually four Puke teams in the 8th grade 1st division this year and I think that is a fantastic achievement, remember, these are random teams, there hasn’t been any grading done yet but four Puke teams ended up in the top two of their respective grading rounds.
We have come up against some formidable teams; well drilled, well coached and, well, graded, as far as I am concerned… I know this is a bone of contention amongst a number of coaches and families, should we also consider grading at an earlier age? I personally believe that in the long run it is more important to raise the level of skills and understanding for the game across the board. I’d rather have small successes with random teams than one runaway team and too many teams not even out of the blocks… I guess at this age group there are a lot of things we can do to raise the level of skills and understanding of the game without setting up elite teams just yet.
Cases in point;
Infrastructure; this year, I feel, the infrastructure was not always sufficient to meet the requirements. Maybe we need to spend more time on planning how to maximise the resources, maybe the training times and grounds need to be assigned by roster to cater for the increased number of teams. Too many times there were too many teams competing for not enough ground space, obviously if you have to spend the first 10 – 15 minutes of your training on finding a speckle of grass for your team to train on you will rue this time later in the year as a missed opportunity to practise this one crucial pass that went begging.
Game time; we were desperate for other teams to join us during training times for a practise game, there is no substitution for match fitness, acquired through… matches. Good on the Sea Snakes to join us on two occasions for training games and good on the Rhinos to come across the park for an impromptu game. THANK YOU SO MUCH to the TUAKAU PANTHERS to travel to Puke on a Thursday night for a practise match with us, I sincerely believe that this deserves a look at for next year, what a great way of getting the teams fit for the season. Again, there is no better substitution for a game than a practise game.
Holidays; The Tunas were out in force during at least one of the two weeks holidays on both occasions this year, very much alone on the park at the time. Maybe this is a good time to set up combined (optional) training sessions during which specific areas of the game are addressed, to give teams and coaches new ideas and inspirations. Time is precious for all of us volunteer coaches but, if we don’t go away in the holidays, we might as well keep the routine going.
Anyway; there is some food for thought; YES, if we have outstanding talent which shines well above their peers, maybe we ought to harness this and ‘grade’ or maybe we just use the talent to inspire their peers to rise to another level. This is probably not the place and the time to discuss and/or come to a conclusion of this matter but the point has been raised and hopefully more people will think about it in the lead up to next year’s season.
Ladies and Gentlefolk, I want to extend a few “Thank Youz” to namely:
The families and friends of the Red Hot Tunas, we know, without you we wouldn’t be and that wouldn’t be… good. You have been fantastic in your support; I hope I will have you all back.
The Sea Snakes for buddying up with us during training and giving us some tough but always fair workouts.
The Tuakau Panthers for making the effort to meet us for a practise game.
My wife Jan, for letting me plot the game plans in the middle of the night when I should really be in bed.
My wife, Jan, for being my wife
My children, Sofia and Jack, for teaching me what coaching is all about, and still accepting me as their coach.
My children, Sofia and Jack, for being my children.
Last but not least I want to thank the Red Hot Tunas for letting me be their coach and for being my team. You guys have charmed me like only those very close to me can. I thank you for that and I thank you for the memories; they will stay with me, even when you, as team, are confined to history.
What remains to be said is this:
“ I had a ball and I’ll be back `;o) ”
W
PS: The electronic file of the official team photo of the Red Hot Tunas 2006 was kindly supplied by Richard Spranger, Photographer, and we sincerely thank Richard for this.