PAIHIA FC HISTORY - ABOUT US...
The Paihia Football Club is a purely voluntary community group, based at the Bledisloe Domain in Haruru Falls and has been nurturing players in the ‘Bay of Islands Community’ for 49 years.
Over the years the club has supported many families and players to ensure that they have a sense of well-being and belonging in our community. The club prides itself on being an extension of whanau and this is evident when young men and women return to play a past versus present now annual football game at the end of the season.
The club has certainly developed many players and had highly successful teams under the guidance of excellent coaches and managers over the years. They have competed; locally, regionally, and internationally in club teams, and at representative levels in football and futsal.
Some memorable moments have been taking teams away to participate in historic Kiwi Cup tournaments in Auckland. These events gave players the opportunity to compete against teams from, USA, Australia, Africa and the Pacific Islands.
Some highlights for the club have been;
- Hosts to the FIFA WWC 2023 Madam Fatima Samoura, Sarai Bareman and their team who visited our club in June 2023. It was a real pleasure to meet these inspirational women who are paving the way for womens global football. We were also able to take our club down to watch a FIFA WWC game in Auckland.
- Playing Brisbane’s Eastern Suburbs team in a final on North Harbor Stadium, playing in the opening match for the Gold Coast Cup Tournament in Australia, having one of our young ladies playing National Women's Premier Football and winning the Maia Jackman trophy for the Most Valuable Player in the ASB Women's Knockout Cup in 2015. Estelle Harrison was also selected to trial for the 2016 Rio Olympics.
- Youth player Shakeal Pickering has been selected to play in the NZ Maori team for the past (5years)
2020 - U14 NZ Maori squad in the Clash of the Cultures Tournament vs U14 Indigenous Australian team 2021 - He captained the U15 NZ Maori Tane vs U15 Cook Island team in Auckland
2022 - He made the U18 squad vs NZ Secondary Schools U19 side in January held in Auckland
2023/2024 - He made the North Island U16 Maori squad vs played U16 South Island Maori held in Auckalnd in January 2023 and Captained the NZ Maori U16 squad who played the u16 New Zealand Secondary School team in January this year 2024.
- We have also had Tiana Paraone and Rayelle Watene who have played for the NZ Maori North Island u16 youth girls in January 2023 and Tinana also played in the NZ Maori u18 ladies vs Hawaii u18 ladies in July 2023.
- Weir Roseball representitives have also come from our club over the years with 3 girls attending in 2023 and 4 junior boys representiting at various ID tournaments for Northland.
It is important to our club to nurture grass roots football. The club is dedicated to organizing and coordinating football in the wider Bay of Islands community. In 2017 and 2018 one of our very dedicated coaches took time off work to deliver a coaching programme to schools during lunchtimes. We coordinated a Bay of Islands Primary Schools U8’s competition as well as a Summer Twilight Community League.
Both initiatives were successful steps in promoting the game of football by enabling several new 10th grade teams to be formed in the Bay of Islands competition and a newly established senior mixed team in the Northland Mens competition.
We are proud of our volunteers who have been recognized at;
- Far North District Council Sports Awards for Service to Sports,
- Nominated & placed in the NZ McDonalds Coach of the Year.
- Recognized for instigating a Regional Federation Youth Suicide Prevention Presentation for football coaches.
- Sport Northland Volunteer Awards
- Maori Sports Awards Finalists and recipients in Administration Jennifer Pickering & Long Service Judith Harrison in 2023
- Paihia Focus Award Winners for contribution to Football with Judith and Dene Harrison recieving acknowledgement in 2023
- The FIFA WWC 2023 Maori Pannelist on the first FIFA Indiginous Pannel Jennifer Pickering
- Northern Regional Football Board Member Jennifer Pickering 2022-current
The Paihia Football Club is eager to continue nurturing sport and active movement in the local Bay of Islands Region and would be extremely grateful for any support.
In 2020; our numbers doubled, 3 teams became 6 teams and for the first time ever we had a Women's team playing in the Northland Women’s Premier Competition. This year we have increased in numbers once more, we have managed to field the same number of teams, however the growth this year is at grassroots level with 20+ youngsters aged 4 – 8 years now involved in after school training and small-sided games.
Coaches & Commitee
We value our Volunteers who give their time and efforts to keeping our club moving forward each season. Many of our volunteers wear many hats from Coaching, Managing to Committee roles and responsibilities as well as some are still playing football in our Senior Men or Womens teams.
We are always looking for more helpers; so if you would like to get involved please contact our Club President for more information...We would love you to join our team of Volunteers!
