The Burringbar Bandits would have settled for less in their first year back in competition, but they did a whole lot better by going all the way and winning the Football Far North Coast first-grade premiership.
‘It has been a special year for the club, much better than we hoped,’ said Kenta Shimizu captain/coach and president of the Burringbar Bandits Football Club (BBFC).
The season came to a head in early September when they beat the minor premiers, Byron Bay, in the grand final 1–0. The BBFC finished the regular season in fourth spot and during the final series beat Goonellebah (3–2), Pottsville (4–1) and Byron Bay (3–0), in a major semi-final, before the main event.
All this in their resurrection year, after the BBFC officially folded in 2015.
The Burringbar Sports Club looks over some great playing fields, and to see them empty of organised team sport, was just too much for Kenta, a Burrinbar local, who returned to his hometown in 2020 as Covid struck.
‘When I was growing up here in the 1990s there was local football all day Saturday, from juniors in the morning all the way up to seniors in the afternoon. To see the team fold was really sad,’ Kenta said.
‘They struggled for players and financial support’.
‘We really wanted to get the club established again on a sustainable footing with sponsors and good player numbers. It was great to win the premiership, but the biggest thing was to see how much the local community got behind us,’ he said.
Kenta starting moving to get the club going again in late 2022, and says it ‘wasn’t easy’.
‘We are very happy to get football back in Burringbar, and especially happy to win,’ Kenta said.
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