ŌPŌTIKI Junior Football has come up trumps with the club’s 13th grade team winning their grade and being declared 2024 Eastern Bay of Plenty champions.

The club credits the team’s success to not only the players but parents and caregivers, and friends and family who have supported the club – as well as coach Troy Hart-Webb.

Hart-Webb, who was born in Invercargill but raised in Ōpōtiki from the age of four, became involved with football after returning to the town with his family.

“We moved home three-and-a-half years ago, from a time in Auckland, and our son wanted to get into sport and wanted to check out football,” he said.

“The season was half-way through, and the coach asked if I could take over, saying she didn’t know anything.”

Hart-Webb said he had “no clues” and just worked it out as he went.

He had never played football and after three-plus years coaching “has yet to read the rule book”.

“I stuck with the team as they came up through the grades and this is our second year in the under-13s,” he said.

“Last year was all about the development; it was about the kids getting used to each other and clicking as a team.

“This year was all about taking out the league and winning.”

Hart-Webb said 13th grade was the only competitive league in the Eastern Bay of Plenty Junior Football League, with the lower grades being about fun and education.

To win, Ōpōtiki played 13 games in the 10-team series. Hart-Webb said he took special delight hearing Whakatāne had stacked their team with their best players when going up against Ōpōtiki.

“Hearing this was satisfying,” he said.

“I have been lucky in that I’ve been able to develop them over the last three years, working on the basics and the fundamentals,” he said.

“They really showed it this year, playing simple, beautiful football.”

At one stage during the development, Hart-Webb noticed the team generated a high number of shots on goal but were not scoring. “So we focused on that and got it sorted,” he said.

Another coaching trick was Hart-Webb’s ability to hand out a suitable number of burpees to any team member who broke a rule: “The key to success is burpees,” he said.