Soccer Shorts

Top school denies students a shot at a National Title.

March 2016: Is it right for a top public school to repress the dreams of it’s students? Is this what is happening right now at Auckland Grammar School? You be the judge…

Sam, Denny and Rob are students at Auckland Grammar. They’re also part of the Auckland Mens futsal team which won the national championship last year, and were core members of the Youth team which came 2nd in NZ in 2015 against competition 2-3 years older than they were.

There is one more title they dreamed of chasing, and that was the Secondary Schools Futsal Championships which are held in April every year. With such a heavyweight line-up the Grammar Team had a strong chance of lifting the national crown this year, but in a bizarre decision the Headmaster has denied the futsal team entry to the competition.

When asked for comment, the HM said their application was rejected because they didn’t ask in time. Also because they don’t play in a recognized league, and because there was no master in charge of the sport. But the boys affirmed their interest as soon as school commenced this year - not so much asking permission as clarifying protocol - a full two months prior to the tournament. And as far as historical competition goes, this was to be their fifth consecutive showing, and they are incumbent in competitive Auckland futsal leagues (finalists in last year’s Youth league, and currently second in the Premier League - see image below.)

The New Zealand Football Federation weighed in on the schools decision with Futsal Development Officer, Dave Payne, saying “surely if there is a team of keen teenagers that fit the criteria that want to participate in a sport that they are passionate about and parents are in a position to fund and organise there must be a solution”.

The father of two of the boys, John Twigg, who managed the team last year, is bemused by this decision. “The school has rules in place to protect their reputation and their kids – I get that. But this decision is just mean. Grammar is well respected at this event, by players and officials. It seems the headmaster has ignored all pleas - even from the national body - in an officious attempt to uphold some obscure rule.”

So did the school simply forget about the Futsal team, and then refuse to make good on their oversight? Or did they consciously decide to block futsal knowing they’d be crushing the dreams of their own students? Is management being callous and oppressive, or are they showing reckless disregard for a sport which they clearly deem unimportant?

Whatever the motives, the school administration seems to be tearing at the fabric upon which Grammar was founded, of altruism, honour and building better men.

Q. When a stakeholder in your page expresses criticism of your processes should you...

a) give an honest and considered reply,

b) ignore them, and hope the issue is forgotten, or

c) delete the criticism.

If you answered (c) then you should get a new social media manager.

AGS Senior Futsal

As Futsal White Captain Marvin Eakins said on the sideline during the finals, no matter what the format is, if you win all your games, you’ll win the tournament. So we can’t blame the system that took away our championship. Nor the draw, which pitted us against 4 strong teams, making high scores harder. Nor the late changes which messed up our preparation, and delivered Wellington a better preparation time.

It’s rough that one moment we’re among the favorites, and next we’re playing for 8th spot, but we knew that only one team from each pool would progress to the finals and we had to win all our pool matches.  So the fact we emerge from the tournament with the best record we’ve ever had, or that we have the respect of the Wellington teams and the Wellington crowd, are little comfort. Because at the end of the day, we lost a match we should have won.

All went well on day one, with three simple pool games. Our first game against Hastings Boys High was relatively well controlled, and we ran out 3-1 winners. Matt Bouzaid was chosen by the opposition coach as MVP for that match.

We watched Wellington play the same opponents before our second game, and took heart in the fact Hastings found several weaknesses in their defense, locking the game up at 2-2 late in the match. But Wellington pressed hard with all their big guns, and managed to sneak in a late winner. Hastings countered in the dying seconds with a brilliant header off a long cross, but the Wellington keeper made the save and Wellington scraped through.

Our second pool match saw us play Shirley Boys High from Christchurch. They were a relative unknown, but had placed second in the Canterbury regionals. We were on the board in moments, and looked very comfortable, but as happens in Futsal a couple of quick strikes from Shirley saw us 2-2 at half time. We stuck to our defensive game plan, and quietly hauled them back in running out eventual 5-2 winners.

And the last match of the first day saw us up against Linwood, who earlier had defeated Shirley Boys. But they proved little resistance to our team which was now really starting to enjoy themselves, and we ran out comfortable 5-0 victors.

Day two was where our plans started to go astray. Wellington had an early pool game against Shirley who they needed to beat by at least 7 goals to usurp us at the top of the pool leading into our head-to-head clash. Although a minor point, it meant the top team only had to draw to progress.

So our first set-back was when Shirley, who had narrowly lost their three pool games, lost heart and capitulated to Wellington College, allowing them to score 9 unanswered goals. This meant Wellington went into the head-to-head with Grammar knowing a draw would be enough for them to progress.

We started strong, with a brilliant shot from Art Twigg in the opening moments eliciting an even more brilliant save from the Wellington keeper. And they were struggling to keep us in check. But around the 10 minute mark they pounced on two defensive errors to knock home two quick goals. During the next 30 minutes, we peppered their goal, with no less than 5 shots hitting the post – twice in one move. But it wasn’t until midway through the second spell that Matt Bouzaid sidestepped a couple of defenders before drilling the ball past the keeper. A late save by Sam Twigg, who managed to defend a dangerous 2 on 1 break, kept us in the game, but we couldn’t find the elusive goal, and the end came too quickly for us.

The question remaining was what spot would we play off for now?

Because most other pools had at least one weak team (arguably a team who didn’t belong in a national championship) most good teams were able to register at least one ‘blow-out win’. So even though we had excellent statistics from 5 well-fought matches, our figures were only good enough to qualify us for the 8th/9th playoff.

Our last match became an ‘homage’ to the Seniors, and we rested most of the starting team. Considering this should have been our toughest game, Taradale High were considerably weaker than any of our pool games, and the boys treated it with due distain. We ran out easy winners, with Jeff Li picking up a hat-trick and the MVP title.

MVP is chosen by the opposing coach after each game. As already noted, Matt was selected in the first game, and Jeff in the last. For each of the other four games, the MVP was Art Twigg. Had he received one more vote he would have been MVP of the tournament.

A quick shout-out to a few people who helped make the tournament a success:

Firstly, the school, who sanctioned the trip, and who gave us court time for practice (during what was clearly a busy time for school sports.

Robin Sinclair who supported us from the start. His involvement in the program was vital to our participation in the first place, and his endless efforts behind the scenes made sure we had all we needed. His considerable personal effort in Wellington, including his role as Court Manager, made a huge difference to the smooth operation of the team. 

James Lai, who gave up his time to assist in management and logistics of the team by taking on the responsibility for the second vehicle. And also for his contribution of the Gatorade (and bucket), which kept us going through the tournament.

Scott Bouzaid, who provided an extra pair of hands and who helped transport our gear.

I’m proud to have worked with this team, and I believe they did Grammar proud. Nothing illustrates this better than the comments of the ref at the end of our last match. He said that we were the best team he’d ever refereed, because we were so relaxed and enjoying the moment, and treated him with respect. If we can’t take home the trophy, then this is arguably the next best thing.

Here’s a look at the results…

The Team:

Twigg, A (Captain)

Bouzaid, M (Vice Captain)

Hunt, W (Vice Captain)

Boyo, J

Hall, O

Kim, SJ

Kong, J

Lai, J

Li, J

Tipelu, R

Twigg, D

Twigg J

Goal Scorers:

William Hunt              4

Jeffrey Qitian Li         4

Matthew Bouzaid      3

Denny Twigg             3

Oliver Tomas Hall      2

Robert Tipelu            2

Sam Twigg                2

Jamie Boyo              1

Games (5-1-0, 22-7)

AGS v Hastings:       w 4-1 Tipelu, Twigg S, Bouzaid, Hall

AGS v Shirley:          w 5-2 Twigg D (2), Twigg S, Hunt, Bouzaid

AGS v Linwood:       w 5-0 Hunt, Tipelu, Twigg D, Li, OG

AGS v Wellington:     l 1-2 Bouzaid

AGS v Taradale:       w 7-2 Li (3), Hunt (2), Boyo, Hall

Cards

Yellow:              0

Here's an interesting letter I sent to Auckland Football Federation today. I'd value comments...

ASB Youth Nationals 2014 – Cost of Competing.

Attn: Youth Football Manager,