Sovereign Hills wishes Port Macquarie Junior Touch players the best of luck this weekend as more than 5,000 competitors from across the state converge on the Hastings for the biggest junior sporting event in the southern hemisphere.

The Junior State Cup is on again and our master planned community is proud to sponsor the 136 local players, coaches, managers and referees across three days of fierce competition at Port Macquarie Regional Stadium and Tuffins Lane Playing Fields.

“We’re very pleased to have you on board,” stated Port Macquarie Junior Touch Coaching Director Peter Vincent as competitors across all 10 age groups received their new uniforms. “It gives us the opportunity to reduce the cost to the players; like any sport, there is a financial commitment to play.”

The Junior State Cup is the premier NSW Touch Football junior representative event. It’s been held in Port Macquarie for the past five years and is expected to draw a total of 18,000 people to the community, as competitor’s parents, siblings and grandparents join them for the event’s duration.

“We’re talking $15m to $20m coming into the community,” added Vincent. “Many will turn up on Thursday night and won’t leave until Monday so they have to buy food, buy steaks for barbecues, go out to restaurants, get coffee, fill the caravan parks and motels; everybody benefits from it.

“I’ve spoken to some of the commercial places, The Good Guys, and they say while they’re not directly tied in with what happens, locals do get an influx of money and a few weeks after that suddenly they buy a new fridge or a new washing machine, so it goes right across the community.”

Port Macquarie Junior Touch Organiser Min Cotter explained while NSW Touch Football take care of the event logistics, locally they’re responsible for the catering and canteen operation, garbage collection, as well as the local players’, coaches’ and managers’ team schedules.

Cotter said the sport’s appeal is that it’s just good, healthy, active fun.

“We have 128 teams in the normal competition. Parents know it’s 40 minutes every week for nine weeks in term four. There are no finals, anyone can play and it runs every year.”

It’s from this competition players are selected to represent Port Macquarie in the Junior State Cup, which can lead to talent identification program exposure, and then state and national selection.

“We have a lot of potential here and our job is to turn that potential into performance,” added Vincent. “I coached the 18s last year and we made the final eight in the state, I think we’re a chance of that this year… We’ve got two players who’ve been talent identified by Australian selectors as possible squad members for the under 18s Junior World Cup this year.”

Sovereign Hills’ developer Lewis Land Group (LLG) is proud to support grassroots sports in our community.

“It’s great to see kids outdoors, participating, interacting with their peers, developing their social skills; it’s why sport is so important,” commented LLG’s Robert Challenger.

“We wish all teams the very best of luck this weekend, and organisers a very smooth and successful Junior State Cup.”