Brisbane Valley Soccer Club has expanded its training premises to include Toogoolawah State School to make it more convenient and inclusive for players who live in the Toogoolawah area.
One of four under 7s Valley teams currently holds its Wednesday training sessions at the Toogoolawah school.
Brisbane Valley Soccer Club president Boris Jaramenko said the expansion is part of a larger effort to make soccer more accessible for Somerset players who may live a fair distance from Lowood.
“We’ve got kids driving from Gregors Creek nearly at Kilcoy to play,” he said.
“There’s no club in Kilcoy so they would have to go to Woodford or Caboolture, Fernvale way there’s no other club between here and Ipswich and Gatton.”
Jaramenko said the Toogoolawah training sessions materialised after a teacher from the school who had a son playing for Valley opted to coach.
“He coached here last year and had a son in the under 7s and said there’s a demand up there for parents who weren’t prepared to drive but whose kids still wanted to play,” he said.
“Next year, we’re going to aim for two or three teams up there and go up from an under 7s to under 9s and 10s.
“We struggle to have stable pathway clubs in Somerset somewhere for the kids to end up so if they started in the under sevens, they could continue through the age groups.
“Our main goal here has been to get a team in every age group so they can keep playing through.”
