Kate Withers
A band of promising young soccer stars are to thank for the extra buzz floating around at Liddiard Road Primary School in Traralgon after they became the school’s first team to make it through to the state championships.
The grade 5 and 6 girls came together for the first time this year and overcame their first hurdle – the district round against schools from across Traralgon – by chance.
“When we played our district round we knew that was going to be a really tough competition and we actually wont through on a coin toss,” physical education teacher and coach Shaun Barbour said.
“We were tied with another team and it came down to a coin toss to win through and we were lucky enough the coin fell our way and we won through to the region stages.”
Since then, the team has well and truly swum with the tide and become the toast of Liddiard Road.
“I do believe it’s the first time our school has made it to a state schools championship, so it’s very exciting for us,” Barbour said.
“I’ve had that many congratulations from the staff – they’re super excited about everything. It’s so exciting for everyone and everyone who has heard about it is just stoked.
“They’ve all been hard-fought wins really. We’ve had some really close games and a lot of one-nil wins with goals at the death in the last few minutes that have snuck us through, so the girls have fought it out every game.”
Cherrie Kaufmann is an educational support officer at Liddiard Road and has coached the team along with daughter Alexandra.
“I’ve been coaching the school soccer team for nearly 15 years and we’ve never got this far,” Kaufmann said.
“I had hope they could get through the first round, but they’re amazing and it hasn’t gone to their head; they’re just a normal group of kids.
“You’d get to that level and just care about winning but they share the ball around and worry about each other first.”
The side is one of eight left standing and will vie for the state title at the School Sport Victoria championships in September where they will represent the Gippsland region.
Barbour admitted the weight of the achievement hadn’t “sunk in yet” for the girls but said September’s trip to Melbourne was a big source of excitement, regardless of the end result.
“They always talked about going to Melbourne as the holy grail but once they get down there I think it will sink in,” he said.
“They’re playing at an international sports stadium with synthetic pitches and everything … so once they get through there and see that they’re not just playing on school ovals and local grounds, which aren’t as flashy, I think it’ll probably sink in for them then.
“It’s a pretty big carrot for the other kids as well, so kids coming through in the younger age groups can see we’ve had a state girls soccer team, so it’s something for them to aspire to and really drive them to be as good as they can be as well.”
