Soccer
27 March, 2024
Falcons ready to soar
The Horsham and District Soccer Club has returned to regional competition for the 2024 season, joining the South West Victoria Football Association.
The Falcons, as they are known by, are entering three teams into the league. The under 12s, under 14s and a senior men's team.
This is the first time they have joined the league having been part of the Ballarat League before Covid hit.
Club president Paul Barnett said they chose to join the league because of the support they will get.
"They are supporting us and the development of the game in the Wimmera," Barnett said.
"Not only that, but we will play against Stawell and it will be awesome to have that derby against them. There is nothing like a local derby to cause interest."
The club has a lot of numbers for each team and is aiming to get more over the coming months.
"The senior side will have 20 or 30 players to select from," Barnett said.
"The under 14s will have approximately 15 and under 12s have a similar number. We also have enough kids to run an internal competition.
"When they are not playing in the league side, they will at least get a competition of some sort."
The schedule is still being finalised and the season is expected to kick off on Friday, April 19.
Barnett said they will be playing on a Saturday or Sunday and to make it feasible for a few teams, some clubs, including Horsham may be playing some home games in Ararat.
"We don't have the facilities to host Friday night games. We have a lot of people traveling an hour or more to get to training," Barnett said.
"Some of the teams that are further out such as Kerang might play home games in Ararat to help develop the game in that area more.
"We have the okay from the Ararat council that we can use their ground for home games and Stawell has also done a lot of work in Ararat. We want to make it easier for travel."
Barnett said they are aiming high and are hopeful they can field more teams next year as well as female and girls teams.
"The way it works is division one is for the main team and the second team will play in division two," Barnett said.
"The aim is to get enough interest to field more teams and hopefully can have a northern and southern conference so we can play mostly in this area.
"It will mitigate a lot of travel and that is the ultimate goal. It won't happen overnight, but we are hopeful we can grow soccer in the region."