A new broom’s sweeping through Queenstown’s football club, along with a healthy increase in playing numbers after three tough years.
On the playing side, the Rovers men and top women’s side, who both kicked off their Dunedin-based premiership seasons on Saturday, both
have new coaches.
Long-time former Rovers goalie Danniel Bocatios takes the coaching reins while Holly Alldred, who last season took the Division 1 women’s team, steps up to coach the top team, which has amalgamated with the Div 1 team.
For the first time in a while, there’ll also be a men’s senior reserve team, including mostly up-and-comers, in the Central Otago league.
On the non-playing side there’s a whole new, enthusiastic committee, including president Simon Couldstone and secretary Gareth Edwards.
Principal club sponsor Colliers has also committed to a new three-year term, at a higher funding level.
Couldstone and Edwards are excited playing numbers have risen to about 270 including, at this stage, 230 to 240 juniors.
‘‘We set ourselves a goal to try and get 250 kids this year and it looks like we’re going to do that,’’ Couldstone says.
The club’s expecting to field 21 teams this year, from under-sixes upwards.
It’s struggling, though, to attract many junior girls, compared with Wānaka and Cromwell which field several girls’ sides.
Longer term, the club’s aspiring to have a hub of some sort, and its own training facilities.
Meantime, Alldred’s quietly confident her premier team can go even better than last year, when they finished third, and Bocatios is hoping his men will also improve on last year’s mid-table finish — ‘‘we started well but didn’t finish as strongly’’.
