A new program at Whittlesea United is providing plenty of highlights and is showing its more than just about soccer.
The club has run an all-abilities program the past year which is aligned with Football Victoria.
Whittlesea’s Koray Kolege said this was something that was important to the whole community.
“It’s a special program and something the club has been working on for the last 14 months,” he said.
“We started off with a handful of kids.
“It was a small little dream that we’ve been envisaging for six or seven years.
“Most programs like this are on the other side of the city. The program is fully funded by the club itself.
“In a day and age where everything costs money, this is massive from the club.”
Selma Sezer runs the program and has been the driving force behind it.
The program caters for people with a number of disabilities with the clear focus to provide the opportunity for sport for everyone.
“We’re proud to be a part of these types of programs as we know they are few and far between,” he said.
“We run high quality men’s and women’s program and we have juniors up and going. This makes the hard work worthwhile.”
The program is currently for children from five and six up to 13 with plans to hopefully encompass older children in the future.
Like Whittlesea United’s other sides, the all-abilities program also participates in regular games.
The grounds are played on smaller playing fields, with smaller teams, shorter game time and different rules from different divisions.
“There is a fully fledged league with eight games a year, played every couple of weeks,” Kolege said.
“There’s an all-abilities gala day held by Football Victoria as well.
“Some of the players train harder than our men’s and junior teams.”
Kolege said parents also get involved in helping run the program while there’s been plenty of support from sponsors and the community.
He said in the future they could see some of the players from the all-abilities program move into mainstream sides.
“That is the hope,” he said. “Mainstream, possibly a couple of years. We’re opened to a number of different scenarios.
“We want to make sure the players are conformable in a space and there’s no limit to the growth in the sport
“We will try and facilitate what we can into the program.
“We’d love to have a dedicated space for all abilities. We don’t want to limit the program.”
