A collaboration between St Joseph’s and Boorowa Central School has spawned one of the biggest touch footy / netball carnivals in the Southern Hemisphere, reaching schools and players from all over the region. It will commence tomorrow at the Showgrounds from 9:00am until 3:00pm.
Boorowa Central School’s Andrew Corcoran explains the importance of the day and what to expect from the touch footy and netball extravaganza.
“We have 163 netball teams and 234 touch teams coming. We have schools from as far Braidwood and the southern highlands and a lot of Canberra schools as well as schools from Harden, Young and Cowra,” he said.
“It’s a big day. Logistically it’s very challenging to get all the traffic in there quickly, and the Yass Road is very busy. Any local residents that are wanting to travel that weekend may want to review their time or change their time as there are a lot of cars on Yass Road and it will give them extra time.
It’s a big fundraiser for St. Joseph’s and Boorowa Central School. The funds from cooking sausages and selling the Zooper Doopers goes back into resources for our schools because they are getting cuts from the Government.”
Andrew said it was a huge day for Boorowa.
“We don’t have many events that Boorowa hosts besides Woolfest, and to have so many people from so many different towns come is great.
The carnival has been going for a long time now, so it’s a bit of a rite of passage. You can run into people in Canberra that you don’t know and you say Boorowa and a lot of them have played at the touch netball carnival. It’s a bit of a legacy that we want to keep going.
“We are having difficulties with funding for traffic management and things like that but we are working our way through it with grants. All the food is bought from IGA and the butchers and around here. The coffee shops are pumping and the service stations are busy. It’s a big money earner for the whole town.
“With most winter sports wrapped up for the year, it gives the kids another opportunity to play. There are no finals or trophies.
Every kid that comes gets four games of touch. It’s all about having fun and having a runaround.”
Previous days have been a dust bowl, so Andrew is looking forward to a potentially perfect day.
“Hopefully we will be lucky with the weather and the bit of rain will soften the fields up.
The kids will get to play on grass, which is great. Everything it setting itself up nicely for a great day.
“The volunteer base is huge, there’s lots of volunteers in the canteen, marking fields, putting the signs up, putting marquees up.
Hilltops Council are huge for us mowing the fields and preparing the grounds.”
Hopefully, it brings tons of money into town as it normally does.
Jack Murray