SAPSASA

[Trimboli]

Just been to one of their trials and have to comment on how woefully organised it was.
One goal with no net.
No warm up or provision of time for warm up.
No pitch marked.
A coach removing his shoes to use as goal posts
No cones
No instructions or drills.
I know it is a difficult process to pick a team but surely it can be done in an easier way?
School organised sports have much to be improved upon from what I have seen.

[johnydep]

School organised sports have much to be improved upon from what I have seen.

'Socca' doesn't rate

[grumbly]

FFS its school based football, just let the kids kick a ball and have fun.
It's not some elite system that leads to anything.

[Stich This]

A bit different to the Jones class system of the Aussie rules much revered "first 18"
that some college types carry on about.

[Trimboli]

FFS its school based football, just let the kids kick a ball and have fun.
It's not some elite system that leads to anything.

If you're going to do something then have the pride to do it properly.

[Stich This]

FFS its school based football, just let the kids kick a ball and have fun.
It's not some elite system that leads to anything.

If you're going to do something then have the pride to do it properly.

+1
Heard about a similar thing at another school.
The trial involved a game with only one goal to kick to .
Both teams were kicking to the same goal, as though it was recess time.

[FK Partizan]

SAPSASA is government funded & in theory is required to follow the National curriculum framework & policies for development. It is also a selection process........ meaning, children get assessed & either selected or dropped. So my thinking .... correct me if I'm wrong, SAPSASA is split into zones, these zones have selection trials, children are assessed on various abilities & on merit are selected to represent their zone. Then each zone play a round robin carnival for points & a table of results are displayed. This is not a kick in the park .... like grumbly mentioned.

In reality it's a teacher that has 5 different sports in their portfolio has NO idea about the sport let alone provide a structured training session.
You put seasoned club players through this process & it will always end up being mocked & ridiculed for it's lack of organisation.

In our zone a female teacher turned up to select the team, later that year the same teacher turned up for tennis & netball selections. She used the term "gurnsies" , "goal kickers" & had 17 vs 13 players! Now people may think whats wrong with that ??? The result of the training session, sprained ankle, blood nose, 9 strikers on 1 team, 30 players on the pitch, keeper on the losing side (13 players) got dejected for obvious reasons. No wonder it's mandatory to wear a mouth guard as we were kindly advised by the selector!

It's a shame as the children do seem to think there is value in SAPSASA.

[grumbly]

Well every time I've seen it over the last few years, it has been just a slightly more organised kick in the park. Let the kids go and have some fun, there's enough pressure on them to perform already.

[Stich This]

Well every time I've seen it over the last few years, it has been just a slightly more organised kick in the park. Let the kids go and have some fun, there's enough pressure on them to perform already.

Structure can still be fun.

[robinfriday10]

The trial involved a game with only one goal to kick to .
Both teams were kicking to the same goal, as though it was recess time

was called wembley or world cup in my school days

[Stich This]

The trial involved a game with only one goal to kick to .
Both teams were kicking to the same goal, as though it was recess time

was called wembley or world cup in my school days

[Cobweb Rides Again]

Surprised your memory stretches back that far Robin!

[Stonthialo]

Depends what district you are from. I have heard that Torrens River and East Adelaide have a good set up.

The problem is about being elite....it's about organising a structured trial to be as inclusive as possible. Small sided games are the way to go. Last year I was at a trial and saw this happen. Hats off to all involved.

[terryball]

I beleive that at least one coach uses their sapsasa coach appointment to scout for players to enhance their fed jrs.

[010101]

The team maybe????? preselected from the STIC comp why look at 3000 players when the FFSA gets all the best players together in one spot for you to look at.

[On The Pine]

Just been to one of their trials and have to comment on how woefully organised it was.
One goal with no net.
No warm up or provision of time for warm up.
No pitch marked.
A coach removing his shoes to use as goal posts
No cones
No instructions or drills.
I know it is a difficult process to pick a team but surely it can be done in an easier way?
School organised sports have much to be improved upon from what I have seen.

I have been involved with my districts Sapsasa for about the last ten years and what you describe, whilst probably not an isolated case, is certainly not indicative of the soccer setup in the majority of districts or in other sports.

The problem is that too often it is purely teacher driven and quite often the district will struggle to get anyone to put their hand up to take a team (which is voluntary and is obviously a heavy time commitment) let alone someone with a soccer background. Quite often districts in this scenario will be lucky enough to have a parent or older sibling with some knowledge to put their hand up to help, but unfortunately that is not always the case. Some districts may offer renumeration, but that will mean that fees spike and will be enough to kill the numbers in some districts.

There are almost 30 sports on offer through Sapsasa, with a variety of formats, but the sports such as Soccer, Netball, Hockey, AFL football, Tennis, Softball, Cricket, etc have a carnival that will between 30 and 60 teams involved (60 in the case of the soccer). A rough estimate would put this at 300 teams for these carnivals alone (and most teams require a coach each).

The Sapsasa soccer carnival is brilliant and I would rather see a bloke using his shoes as goals (that is willing to put his hands up and give it a go) taking charge than having a district miss out. I don't mean to be critical but perhaps you could offer some assistance? if it's worth complaining about on a forum, which it is, it is worth wanting to be proactive about it, getting involved and making it better.

[ikon]

how does it work?

do kids represent their school? or do they represent a zone?

back in my day i remember i played for school in some knock out cup and then also played at west beach in a carnival.

is it the same now?

[On The Pine]

how does it work?

do kids represent their school? or do they represent a zone?

back in my day i remember i played for school in some knock out cup and then also played at west beach in a carnival.

is it the same now?

There are actually both. Schools can enter into a knockout competition (both a small school and large school comp) which is played over a term or so from memory.

The main tournament is between districts (zone system you could say), of which there are around 40 (and they are usually made up of around 15 schools each). That carnival has been held at West Beach for the last few years and has three divisions of girls and boys, with approximately 10 teams per division.