Junior football is underway across Newcastle, the Hunter Valley, and New South Wales and there are more than 100 young Jets involved.
With sides competing across both the NPL Northern NSW and the NPL NSW Women’s competitions, there have been plenty of wins and a few losses.
There have been a number of star performers across the past month, but two have stood above the rest.
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Archie Goodwin from the U/15 boys and Zoe Kairpidis from the U/14 girls have been selected as the Greater Bank Academy Players of the Month for March, following superb starts to their respective seasons.
Goodwin, a striker, has been a key cog in a side which has won four of its opening five games in the NPL Northern NSW U/16’s competition.
Jets coaching staff have lauded the young striker’s ability to be in the right place at the right time, along with his talent to finish the chances presented to him.
Goodwin has scored 12 goals, including a double hat-trick against Adamstown in Round 3, and currently sits atop the goalscoring charts in the competition.
While Goodwin has been tearing it up at the front end, his female counterpart in Zoe Kaipidis has earned acknowledgement for her role in the heart of defence.
The centre-back has been defensively sound in her side’s four matches so far this season, with coaching staff acknowledging her quality leadership skills on and off the pitch.
Kaipidis has played a key part in her U/14 side’s defensive solidity thus far this season, with the side keeping two clean sheets and conceding just two goals in their four NPL NSW Women’s games.
Academy director, Craig Deans was pleased with the performances of both Goodwin and Kaipidis.
“It wasn’t easy to pick a player of the month for March, there were a lot of standout performers across our 11 Academy teams,” Deans said.
“Archie hasn’t just been scoring plenty but he’s proving himself a good team player too, while Zoe is doing a fantastic job and is a leader whether it’s her own team or when she’s stepped up into the under 15’s.
“Greater Bank have come on board and are sponsoring our Player of the Month award with a $50 Life Saver account, which we’re grateful for.”
