Athletes and coaches of the Academy’s 2017 Central Coast Granite Touch Football squad were crucial figures in the Central Coast Dolphins 18’s boys team that claimed the NSW Touch Football Junior State Cup 18’s Boys title on February 18. The annual tournament held in Port Macquarie was the last in its current format, as Junior State Cup will be split into northern and southern conferences from 2019 due to the rapid growth of Touch Football in NSW.
Over 40 athletes from various CCAS sports programs were amongst the 4000+ Touch Footballers that descended on Port Macquarie for the largest single-weekend sporting event in the world. The four local associations; Berkeley Vale Panthers, Central Coast Dolphins, Doyalson Dragons and Peninsula Piranhas were well represented and will continue to compete at Port Macquarie in February in coming years as a part of the Northern Conference of Junior State Cup.
The hard work put in during the off-season by CCAS athletes Jeremy Belcher, Cody Frost, Josh Moffitt, Jarrod Rayner-Badior and Lachlan Rayner-Badior paid off as they worked alongside CCAS coaches Kyle Jermyn and Mark Tipple to help bring the first 18’s boys state title to the Central Coast since 2004. The Central Coast Dolphins 18’s boys capped off an undefeated season beating Manly Sea Eagles in the final by 6 touchdowns to 3 with Josh Moffitt being named ‘Player of the Final’ after a fantastic performance.
2017 CCAS Touch Football Athlete of the Year and Dolphins 18’s boys captain, Cody Frost said the hard work put in during the off season by the Academy athletes contributed strongly to the state championship victory.
“The little things we worked on at Academy like running the right lines and work on ball skills make a massive difference in big games. Words can’t describe how exciting it was to win State Cup. So much hard work has gone into this season and it’s awesome to see it pay off.” Frost said.
“I think local juniors coming through should definitely trial for the Academy program. We had a lot of fun and everyone grew close as a squad last year. It helps so much with what you learn and get to work on before the big competitions.”
Head Coach of the Dolphins 18’s boys and the CCAS Central Coast Granite Touch Football Program, Mark Tipple had this to say of the victorious campaign: “I’m incredibly proud of what the boys were able to achieve. We’ve been working for almost four years to achieve a state title, so to see it come to fruition in what was the final junior year for half of the team is fantastic. This result is testament to the time and effort the boys put in all year-round. Being able to work with a core group of the boys at Academy and club level certainly helped us all learn more about the game together and I’m excited to work with the 2018 CCAS Touch squad thanks to great supporters of the Academy program, Central Coast Granite.”
Applications for the Academy’s 2018 Central Coast Granite Touch Football Program are now open online at thinksport.com.au/programs/touch-football.
