Orange Touch Football announce plans for junior All Abilities Program

If you're playing competitively, the opportunities are endless and if you're into it for the social side, there's plenty of enjoyment to come.

To go with both those aspects of the sport, there's also its promotion of inclusiveness and that was on show at last week's multi-sport day for students with disabilities at Orange PCYC.

From that, Orange Touch Football (OTF) are looking to provide a pathway that'll ensure all abilities junior touch footballers have the best opportunities to play the sport.

That pathway will come through the All Abilities Program Orange Touch Football (OTF) are holding at Waratah Sports Ground on October 12.

"This'll be the first year we've run the juniors, last year seniors went really well and we'll run them separately this year," junior all abilities co-ordinator Rebecca Davis detailed.

"The six-week program will be skills based with similar age and development appropriate skills. The last four weeks will have games where we invite parents, care-givers, siblings and orange representative players to join in and have an inclusive competition. This'll run the same time as juniors so around the same time as their siblings would be playing. It's a great little program, and the idea is to get their skills up to integrate them into main stream competition."

While running the touch football program at the multi-sport day, national inclusive program coordinator Lauren Pruscino said those sort of introductory events provide an ideal way for all abilities players to integrate themselves into other competitions.

"These programs introduce them to the sport of touch, they are completely inclusive and anyone can get involved whether they have an intellectual or physical disability. It's open to all ages and gets people involved in their community, learning touch skills and having some fun," she said.

"Then from these programs players can have the opportunity to represent their region at the national touch league if they choose and potentially participate in their local competitions against able bodied athletes, which is the main goal."

Pruscino added that the success of multi-sport programs is clearly indicated by the rate in which players return.

"They love it, it's great to get kids out, keeping them active and involved in the community," she said.

"They have a bunch of fun and always come back, Orange is running its second program this year and it's amazing to see the participants returning."

If you know someone under 16 and under who's interested, contact bec06j@hotmail.com.