Photos: Supplied.
If you love a game of footy or would like your kids to play but you’re worried about knocks, scrapes, possible concussion or breaks, perhaps touch football is the sport to consider.
Touch football is a popular sport in the Redlands and age is no bar; Redlands Touch Association has junior and senior games for all skill and experience levels and players’ ages range from five to 75. Started in the Redlands 1978 the volunteer-driven organisation now has 2,000 junior members and 1,500 senior members.
Jason Hemson, who has a full basket of responsibilities as Club Administrator, Junior Coach Developer, Referee and Mini Muddies Co-ordinator and Operations Manager, says that Redlands Touch Association’s motto is “putting sportsmanship back into sport”.
“Basically it’s about the kids – and the seniors – getting out there, playing sport and having fun. The club has a great social feeling and sometimes the mixed teams are made up of three family generations playing together. Touch footy is open to everyone, it’s gender inclusive, cross-generational and welcomes all abilities. Thursday nights are dedicated to Skills and Drills training, for players who have physical or psychological challenges.”
Jason says that the players develop a whole range of skills; running, catching, passing, spatial awareness, evasion and team work.
“Even though it is a contact sport the contact is minimal; there’s no tackling and no scrums. However, it’s not exclusive of other codes and a lot of players are involved in other full-contact football games. The good news for parents is that it’s one of the cheapest team sports their kids can play.”
The training calendar is a satisfyingly busy one and for junior teams the two annual seasons are formatted to fit school terms and holidays. There are highlight competitions throughout the year – the club has twenty junior representative teams – and in the first week of July it will host the annual Junior State Cup, which will see 260 teams from all over Queensland converge on the Redlands to battle it out – with a minimum of damage.
Interested individuals – or families – are encouraged to contact redlandstouch.com.au, drop an e-mail to [email protected] or call 3286 5841.
