Thursday, four players from the Adelaide Comets U12’s, Cain Williams, Kairo Felix, Sasha Coorey and Ethan Kladouris, will travel to Devonport, Tasmania to play for Football Federation SA (FFSA) in the U12’s 2017 National Skills Acquisition Program (SAP) Festival.
The SAP is a key aspect of Football Federation Australia’s National Curriculum to accelerate the skill and development of identified players at the critical ages of 9-12.
This is the age group universally acknowledged to be the optimal mental and physical phase in which children are able to learn motor skills.
In October 2016, at the end of the regular season, our Comets stars attended the Skills Acquisition Program trials at the Adelaide Shores Football Centre and Elite Systems Football Centre, where approximately 100 other players trialed.
These four players were selected to represent the 2005 born SAP West Zone, in which a total of 14 players from the Adelaide Comets were chosen to represent the SAP West zone across different age groups.
All have been training very hard over the summer with over 20 sessions from November to January as well as internal SAP games organised against the other 3 SAP zones (North, South and East) on the weekends.
In addition, all 4 players attended a training session with the Tasmania SAP group, where they were used as players for the FFSA Youth C Class Licence coaches that were doing their practical exam sessions.
The SAP Festival starts with games being played on Friday the 3rd of March through to Sunday the 5th of March.
Friday morning they kick off against South Hobart and in the afternoon play against the Newcastle (Emerging) Jets.
Saturday, they face Perth Glory (Orange) in the morning and Perth Glory (Purple) in the afternoon.
The SAP Festival concludes on the Sunday, with the final two games against Northern Rangers and Kingborough Lions.
Adelaide Comets wishes Cain, Kairo, Sasha and Ethan, as well as all competing for South Australia, the best of luck at the tournament!