Normally, soccer involves playing with footballs the size of … well, normal footballs. 

About 40 children in Bowen played with footballs of a slightly bigger size on Wednesday – over a metre and half bigger.

These footballs were the draw-card for a Creative Community Concepts event at Margaret Stevenson Oval.

Creative Community Concepts’ Kyle Myers, who also does work with Country Rugby League, said they used sport as a way to engage young children and teenagers.  

“We use sport as a bridge to engage families in estates across the Central West so we try and think of the best ideas to engage families and children,” he said.

On Wednesday, teams of four or five raced against each other and the clock to navigate the giant balls around a rope course, with time deducted for every time the ball touched the ropes. 

“In the school holidays it’s creating a fun environment for them and bringing something to them, where normally they might not be able to be transported to them so we bring a free event to their doorstep so they can participate in and it’s obviously walking distance for them,” My Myers said. 

The events have travelled all through the Central West, with events in Kelso near Bathurst and in Wellington in coming days, and Mr Myers said he loved running them.

“It’s like a new lease on life, seeing all the kids’ smiling faces, holding something in the community for them and that’s the rewarding thing,” he said. 

One of the participants, Ky’ann Nicholls, said she also got a kick out of the giant footballs. 

“I really liked the second part because we won and it got us into the final,” she said. 

“It’s pretty cool.” 

Mission Australia also attended the day, which as part of Youth Week was aimed at giving people under the age of 20 a chance to do something fun, but to also hear about their concerns and feelings. 

Most participants aged between 15 and 19 took part in the survey, which asked young people about how they felt about how a variety of issues affected them, including social media, services provided, drug and alcohol and body image.