Kyan Lerch-Lozano practises his handball skills in the first Seddon Auskick session of the year. 80233 Picture: DAMIAN VISENTINI
By MICHAEL ESPOSITO
Demographics are changing slowly, but the popularity is growing rapidly at Seddon Auskick.
Centre co-ordinator Adrian McEniery will be looking after 81 children every Saturday morning for the next two school terms. When the Seddon Auskick program started four years ago there were only 17 children attending.
“Word of mouth has been strong,” McEniery said. “I think the time that we run it also helps. We chose to stay with 10am on Saturday, which I think is a little more family friendly for a lot of people. Some of the other Auskicks around here start at 8.30am or 9am, I think after the working week a lot of people like a later start.”
McEniery also said the program was starting to attract children from different backgrounds.
“We’re seeing a few more kids from Asian backgrounds interested now. We’ve got some kids who are from Indian or Sri Lankan backgrounds as well, so there’s a bit of a mix, but I’d say it’s only beginning stages still. It’s very slowly changing.”
There are five girls involved in the Seddon Auskick program, but McEniery wants more girls to be involved.
He said Auskick was a great feeder into junior footy.
The biggest change for us has been the number of kinder and prep kids coming through,” he said.
“About 50 per cent of our kids are six and under.
“The junior teams are still looking for kids all the time. I think the demographic is such that I think we’ll be able to provide a lot more kids to the junior clubs in the next couple of years. The big end numbers are really coming through now.”
