Soccer club’s time to celebrate

THE Forest Rangers Soccer Club will host a community day for their members, families, and friends this Sunday 27 August to celebrate all they’ve achieved this year.

Club treasurer Tracy Dean said it will be the first time all teams have matches on their home pitches on one day at Wendouree West Recreation Reserve since they moved back to the upgraded site earlier this year.

“We have all our teams playing at home and have lots of activities for the kids and big kids,” she said. “Forest has had a huge year. Everything’s falling into place.

We moved into our new pavilion and ovals, hosted the FIFA Women’s World Cup Trophy Tour, we’ve seen growth in participation, and this is our way of saying thank you to all our player, parents, supporters, and volunteers.

“We also haven’t had a chance to have an opening with everyone, so this is our chance.”

Activities will begin at 10am including face painting, a dunking tank, colouring, scavenger hunts, and more games to entertain kids. MiniRoos will have presentations after their games.

The first game is at 9am, and the senior men play at 3pm, before everyone’s welcome for a celebratory parma night in the pavilion.

“We’ve had a great year,” Ms Dean said. “All our senior teams will make finals, our junior competitive have had a great year, and we’ve had an under 12 girls’ team which has been an asset.

“Hopefully we can build on that and increase numbers to maybe a second under 12 girls’ team.

“But our player numbers in general are 30 per cent better than last year, and 100 per cent better on five years ago.

“We hope everyone will come back and play next year, so we’re aiming to make it worth their while.”